Our  Medical  Work 
in  the  Orient 


Published  by 

The  General  Board  of  Promotion 
of  The  Northern  Baptist  Convention 

for  the 

Wigan’s  American  Baptist  Foreign  Mission  Society 
276  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City 


Our  Medical  Work 
in  the  Orient 


Operating  Room,  Etta  Waterbury  Hospital 
Udayagiri,  South  India 


Published  by 

The  General  Board  of  Promotion 
of  The  Northern  Baptist  Convention 

for  the 

Woman’s  American  Baptist  Foreign  Mission  Society 
276  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City 


Baptist  Graduates  from  Woman’s  Medical  College,  Ludhiana,  India 
Kanthama  Nandamah  Minnie  Rungiah 


Our  Medical  Work  in  the  Orient 


SOUTH  INDIA 

IT  IS  too  little  understood,  even  in  these  days  of  compara- 
tively widespread  information,  how  deep  is  the  need  of 
medical  work  in  India,  not  only  for  the  relief  of  the  inevitable 
suffering,  but  because  the  people,  fettered  by  ignorance  and 
superstition,  cannot  be  reached  except  through  the  medium 
of  something  of  which  even  the  dullest  and  blindest  shall  feel 
the  need. 

“The  minds  of  men  are  broadened 
By  the  process  of  the  suns” 

wrote  the  poet,  but  this  does  not  seem  to  be  true  in  India; 
for  one  wonders,  when  going  to  India  in  this  twentieth  cen- 
tury, how  a people  whose  history  dates  back  to  the  Aryan 
invasion  of  northern  India,  3,000  years  before  Christ,  could 
be  so  narrow,  so  non-progressive.  With  the  British  invasion 
in  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  India’s  lessons 
in  modern  civilization  and  the  brotherhood  of  man  began; 
but  two  centuries  have  proved  man  as  well  as  time  inade- 
quate to  India’s  great  need,  and  only  with  the  coming  of 
the  missionary  in  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century 
did  she  get  her  first  glimpse  of  the  still  higher  truth — the 
Fatherhood  of  God.  Now  after  a little  more  than  a century 
three  million  names  are  on  the  Christian  church  roll,  the 
majority  of  whom  come  from  the  untouchable  outcaste 
classes,  formerly  down-trodden  and  detested  by  all,  but  now 
competing  with  the  educated  Brahman  in  good  government 
positions,  their  womenhood  raised  far  beyond  that  of  any 
class  of  non-Christian  people  in  India.  But  while  results  are 
highly  gratifying,  they  are  far  from  satisfying,  and  we  face 
in  India  today  sixty-six  million  Mohammedans,  the  largest 
number  in  any  one  country;  fifteen  million  Brahmans,  only 
one  of  four  great  divisions  of  caste  people,  and  a similar  num- 
ber of  shrewd,  w’ealthy  Parsees;  all  these  classes  with  a few 


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exceptions  unreached,  and  why?  The  cause  may  be  summed 
up  in  a few  words:  tradition,  ancient  customs,  the  caste  system 
and  the  depression  of  womanhood. 

India  cannot  move  forward  to  her  great  destiny  bound 
down  by  the  fetters  of  customs  centuries  old.  Through  the 
school  of  contact  with  culture,  progress,  human  and  divine 
love,  will  she  learn  her  errors  and  correct  them.  And  that 
contact  must  come  through  the  channel  of  something  they 
realize  they  need,  for  the  vision  of  the  human  eye  of  under- 
standing is  short,  especially  that  dimmed  by  vice  and  super- 
stition, and  they  know  not  that  they  want  Christ.  Hence 
the  industrial,  educational  and  medical  workers  on  the  staff 
with  the  evangelistic. 

The  need  of  work  for  women  and  children  exists  in  all 
oriental  countries,  where  the  native  doctors  are  without 
knowledge  of  medical  science  and  where  the  superstition  of 
the  people  has  led  to  all  sorts  of  harmful  practises;  but  in 
India  the  need  is  particularly  urgent,  owing  to  the  universal 
practise  of  child  marriage  and  the  treatment  of  childbirth 
and  the  child  mother  as  unclean.  Not  only  does  the  little 
Hindu  wife  experience  motherhood  at  an  age  when  our  happy 
little  American  girls  are  playing  with  their  dolls,  but  at  the 
trying  time  of  her  confinement  she  is  in  all  probability  isolated 
in  some  filthy  little  outside  hut  and  left  to  the  mercy  of  a na- 
tive midwife  who  is  not  only  ignorant,  but  dirty  and  super- 
stitious as  well,  and  who  tortures  her  with  all  the  practises 
which  ignorance  and  superstition  suggest. 

No  one  who  has  visited  India  will  ever  forget  the  little 
undeveloped  Hindu  girls.  Maturity  does  not  depend  on 
one  bodily  function  alone,  but  on  the  condition  of  the  entire 
system,  and  this  child  wife  of  India,  herself  probably  the 
offspring  of  a girl  mother  not  old  enough  to  bear  the  strain 
of  maternity,  is  undeveloped  even  for  her  years.  Of  the 
terrible  sufferings  which  these  conditions  involve  for  the 
women  of  India  any  mission  doctor  can  bear  witness. 

Medical  work,  owing  to  a prejudice  against  it  in  earlier 
days,  is  still  in  its  infancy  in  India.  Not  until  1769  was  the 
first  British  surgeon-general  appointed  and  not  until  1869 
was  a Christian  woman  doctor  sent  out  to  India’s  millions  of 
suffering  women  and  children. 


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Etta  Waterbury  Hospital,  Udayagiri,  South  India 


Our  own  medical  work  began  in  Bapatla  in  December,  1886, 
when  Emma  J.  Cummings,  M.D.,  the  first  doctor  to  respond 
to  the  call  from  South  India,  reached  Bapatla.  In  addition  to 
language  study  she  treated  600  patients  with  diseases  vary- 
ing from  headache  and  indigestion  to  convulsions  and  epi- 
lepsy. Finding  the  climate  very  trying  during  the  second 
year,  she  was  compelled  to  drop  her  work  for  five  months 
and  rest  on  the  hills.  At  the  request  of  W.  B.  Boggs  she  was 
later  transferred  to  Ramapatnam. 

NELLORE 

At  the  annual  conference  in  1894  Nellore  was  chosen  as 
the  most  desirable  station  for  a centrally  located  and  well 
equipped  woman’s  hospital.  Two  years  before,  medical  work 
had  been  begun  in  a small  way  by  Dr.  Ida  Faye  and  Miss 
Beatrice  Slade  (now  Mrs.  Brock  of  Kanigiri),  a trained  nurse. 
At  the  first  the  doctor  dispensed  medicines  in  her  living  room 
and  performed  operations  in  her  sleeping  room,  afterwards 


o 


securing  a hired  room  on  the  principal  street  of  the  town. 
It  was  a glad  day  when  the  work  was  removed  to  the  attrac- 
tive new  dispensary  on  the  hospital  compound,  and  the  hos- 
pital building  was  completed  and  formally  opened  with  ap- 
propriate exercises  on  February  10,  1897. 

Dr.  Faye  married  Rev.  F.  H.  Levering,  but  continued  her 
work,  and  with  her  sister.  Miss  Mary  Faye,  both  of  them 
already  known  and  beloved  in  Nellore,  carried  on  the  work 
most  successfully  for  a number  of  years  until  they  left  on 
furlough.  During  the  next  few  years  the  work  suffered  from 
unavoidable  interruptions,  the  hospital  being  closed  during 
two  separate  periods  and  cared  for  in  the  interval  between  by 
Dr.  Caroline  Coates  and  Miss  Lillian  Wagner,  both  of  whom 
were  later  transferred  to  other  stations,  as  were  also  Dr.  Lever- 
ing and  Miss  Faye. 

Both  Dr.  Levering  and  Dr.  Coates  did  a beautiful  work  and 
their  names  are  still  frequently  on  the  lips  of  many.  In  July, 
1904,  regular  work  was  begun  again  by  Dr.  Lena  A.  Benja- 
min and  Miss  Katherine  Gerow.  Since  that  time  it  has  gone 
steadily  on.  Miss  Annie  Magilton  and  Dr.  Anna  Degenring 
came  to  the  field  ready  to  take  the  work  when  the  others  came 
home  on  furlough.  Dr.  Florence  Weaver  was  at  Nellore  dur- 
ing her  language  study,  but  later  was  transferred  to  Mah- 
bubnagar.  In  1918  Miss  Magilton  was  obliged  to  return  to 
America  and  Miss  Jennie  Reilly  was  sent  to  the  hospital  in 
her  place.  In  1921  Miss  Lillian  Wagner  again  came  to  Nel- 
lore when  Miss  Reilly  took  charge  of  Ongole  during  the  fur- 
lough of  Miss  Sigrid  Johnson. 

The  original  hospital  buildings  at  Nellore  were  only  in- 
tended to  be  temporary  and  were  very  soon  outgrown.  They 
have  been  added  to  and  replaced  until  we  now  have  a fine 
group  of  buildings,  including  the  hospital,  the  dispensary, 
the  bungalow  where  our  missionary  doctors  and  nurses  live, 
and  the  new  maternity  ward  and  nurses’  home.  The  last- 
mentioned  building  was  erected  in  1916-17  and  opened  with 
appropriate  ceremony,  DewarBahadur  R.  Ramachandra  Rao, 
District  Magistrate,  graciously  presiding.  Before  the  program, 
invited  guests  representative  of  the  public-spirited  citizens  of 
the  town  were  received  under  a large  tent  pitched  in  front  of 
the  hospital  and  entertained  by  gramophone  selections. 


8 


Nurses’  Home,  Nellore,  India 


The  money  for  a large  window  in  the  recently  opened 
maternity  ward  w’as  given  by  the  Executive  Engineer  of  Nel- 
lore in  gratitude  for  a fine  big  boy  born  in  the  hospital,  and  a 
tract  of  land,  consisting  of  one  and  one-half  acres  and  valued 
at  two  thousand  rupees,  was  given  by  Rau  Bahadur  Laksh- 
minarasa  Reddy.  This,  together  with  land  back  of  it  ac- 
quired through  the  government,  gives  necessary  space  for 
expansion.  The  government  granted  five  thousand  rupees 
for  enlarging  the  maternity  department,  and  the  Surgeon- 
General  upon  his  visits  has  been  most  helpful  and  has  ex- 
pressed himself  as  much  pleased  with  the  work  done.  His 
Excellency  Lord  Pentland,  upon  taking  up  his  position  as 
Governor  of  Madras  Presidency,  visited  the  hospital  and 
showed  the  utmost  friendliness  towards  the  work. 

From  all  this  it  will  appear  that  our  medical  work  in 
Nellore  from  its  modest  beginnings  has  developed  to  such  an 


9 


extent  as  to  command  the  respect  of  the  government  and 
the  confidence  of  the  caste  people,  who  are  found  in  ever- 
increasing  numbers  among  the  in-patients.  During  the  year 
1920,  1,304  patients  were  admitted  to  the  hospital;  in  the 
out-patient  department  there  were  5,564  cases;  total  treat- 
ments, 40,166. 

The  story  of  the  gift  of  land  by  Lakshminarasa  Reddy  is  so 
significant  as  to  merit  special  mention.  Reddy  was  a rich 
man,  a bachelor  in  a large  family  or  clan  whose  property  ad- 
joined the  hospital.  Not  a Christian,  he  was  nevertheless 
a not  uninterested  observer  of  the  beneficent  works  to  which 
his  Christian  neighbors  devoted  themselves.  In  course  of 
time,  the  doctors  were  called  for  various  members  of  his  family 
and  achieved  things  considered  nothing  short  of  miraculous 
according  to  Hindu  ideas.  Little  by  little  he  became  a friend 
and  adviser.  Finding  that  the  hospital  compound  was 
crowded  and  needed  a valuable  piece  of  adjoining  land  which 
Lakshminarasa  Reddy  himself  owned,  he  walked  over  the 
land  and  announced  that  he  would  give  it  to  the  hospital. 
He  failed  to  give  the  deed,  however,  in  spite  of  several  deli- 
cate attempts  to  bring  the  matter  to  his  recollection,  his  sole 
animadversion  on  the  subject  being  to  the  effect  that  his  word 
was  as  good  as  a deed.  Our  workers,  fearing  to  offend,  said  no 
more  and  were  filled  with  misgivings  when  he  fell  ill  and 
finally  died.  Then  it  transpired  that  Lakshminarasa  Reddy 
had  made  his  will  one  month  after  giving  the  land,  setting 
down  not  only  his  gift  of  the  land,  but  in  addition  $2,000  to 
build  a rest  house  (sutrum)  in  which  friends  of  patients  might 
stay  while  their  friends  were  in  the  hospital,  only  stipulating 
that  his  own  relatives  have  first  option  on  the  use  of  this  rest 
house.  His  gift  also  included  100  rupees  annually  for  blankets. 

On  the  great  occasion  of  the  funeral  of  this  conspicuous 
man  it  was  intimated  to  our  Nellore  doctors  and  nurse  that 
though  women  are  not  expected  to  attend  these  funeral 
rites  (and  in  fact  even  the  women  of  the  family  were  not  pres- 
ent), it  would  be  gratifying  to  the  family  if  these  friends 
should  attend. 

So  Lakshminarasa  Reddy  went  out,  with  who  knows  what 
inklings  of  the  divine  mercy  and  the  divine  purpose,  and  the 
Nellore  hospital  lost  one  of  its  most  valued  friends.  Yet  the 


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widening  influence  of  his  life  and  friendship  will  tell  on  the 
work  of  the  hospital  through  years  to  come. 

Another  non-Christian  friend  of  the  hospital  is  old  Nanni, 
an  aged  Mohammedan  woman,  poor  but  highly  educated, 
conversant  with  the  Arabic,  Persian  and  Hindustani  lan- 
guages. Christianity  offers  many  perplexities  to  Nanni’s 
mind,  stamped  through  long  years  with  the  teachings  of 
Mohammedanism;  but  her  heart  understands  and  responds 
to  the  deeds  in  which  Christianity  expresses  itself.  Her  ser- 
vices are  always  at  the  disposal  of  our  workers  and  with  her 
versatility  in  language  she  is  invaluable  in  explaining  to 
Hindu  patients  what  is  wanted. 

The  Nurses’  Training  School  is  fast  making  a reputation 
for  itself  through  the  nurses  graduated  from  it,  a number 
of  them  having  achieved  distinction  and  two  of  them  stand- 
ing highest  in  the  Madras  Presidency  in  a recent  examina- 
tion. As  can  be  imagined,  great  is  the  joy  when  these  well 
trained  nurses  return  to  the  missionaries  who  sent  them  to 
the  school. 

In  all  our  medical  work  it  is  not  forgotten  that  the  ulti- 
mate object  is  ministry  to  the  souls  of  these  needy  people. 
The  Bible  is  taught  daily,  two  Bible  women  being  employed, 
one  for  the  hospital  wards  and  one  for  the  dispensary.  While 
dispensary  patients  are  awaiting  their  turn,  they  are  given 
the  gospel  message,  are  told  why  our  missionaries  have  come  so 
far  to  minister  to  their  bodies,  and  are  taught  that  their  souls 
need  healing  as  well.  In  the  wards  the  patients  wait  eagerly 
for  the  Bible  woman  and  her  message,  and  it  is  not  uncommon 
to  hear  the  little  altercation,  “It’s  our  turn  to  have  you 
in  our  ward  today’’ — “No,  it’s  ours  today.’’  As  a result  of 
this  teaching  and  the  spreading  of  it,  as  patients  return  to 
their  people,  many  of  the  caste  people  are  beginning  to  show 
a real  interest,  and  the  purchase  of  tracts,  Bibles  and  hymn 
books  show  a marked  increase. 

The  Christmas  tomasha,  or  Christmas  celebration,  is  the 
climax  of  the  year’s  evangelistic  work.  It  is  held  in  the  gen- 
eral ward  of  the  hospital,  patients  who  are  unable  to  sit  up, 
being  brought  in  on  their  beds.  A large  number  of  discharged 
patients  return,  so  that  even  the  verandas  are  crowded.  The 
Christmas  story  is  told  by  a Bible  woman,  after  which  the 


11 


Dr.  Degenring  in  Camp,  South  India 

doctor  gives  a Bible  talk  and  the  nurses  sing  Christmas  hymns. 
Presents  from  the  tree  are  given  to  nurses  and  servants, 
there  are  native  sweets,  dolls  for  the  girls,  tops  for  the  boys, 
oranges  for  those  who  cannot  take  sweets,  and  the  Christmas 
spirit  suffuses  all. 

We  must  not  close  our  account  of  Nellore  without  a word 
about  the  new  Ford  automobile  given  to  the  hospital  in  1916 
by  a kind  friend  in  America.  This  makes  it  possible  for  the 
doctors  to  reach  urgent  cases  quickly  and  relieves  them  from 
the  nervous  strain  of  long  hours  in  the  ox  cart.  They  are  also 
able  to  open  branch  dispensaries  in  the  neighboring  villages, 
visiting  them  in  the  auto  once  or  twice  a week.  Dr.  Degen- 
ring writes:  “In  July  our  new  Ford  car,  so  kindly  made  pos- 
sible by  a friend,  was  purchased,  and  we  are  planning  to  open 
two  new  dispensaries,  one  fifteen  miles  from  here  and  the 
other  eighteen  miles  west.  We  have  visited  both  places  and 
the  people  are  eager  to  have  us  come  and  are  willing  to  furnish 
the  house  for  our  use.’’ 

In  a later  letter  Dr.  Benjamin  writes:  “February  was  a 
very  happy  month  with  me.  I spent  the  first  three  weeks 


12 


out  on  tour  with  a couple  of  Bible  women  and  some  nurses. 
We  pitched  our  tent  in  a tamarind  and  mango  grove  near 
two  large  villages,  eighteen  miles  west  of  Nellore.  Mornings 
I spent  at  the  tent  giving  medicine  and  holding  meetings. 
Evenings  (or  afternoons)  and  nights  I w'ent  to  the  villages. 
The  Bible  women  went  mornings  also.  During  that  three 
weeks  we  went  to  eighteen  different  villages  and  several  of 
these  villages  were  visited  two  or  three  times.  We  were 
received  most  cordially  everywhere  and  the  gospel  story  was 
listened  to  with  great  interest,  especially  by  the  caste  people. 
And  all  of  this  is  possible  because  we  have  our  motor.” 

Thus  a modest  Ford  may  be  made  to  multiply  manyfold 
the  efficiency  of  missionaries  and  hospitals  representing  a 
much  greater  outlay — an  interesting  illustration  of  economy. 

RAMAPATNAM 

At  Ramapatnam  (forty  miles  north  of  Nellore),  we  have 
a dispensary  on  the  large  compound  belonging  to  the  Theo- 
logical Seminary.  Here  for  years  a small  dispensary  work 
was  carried  on  by  Mrs.  Heinrichs,  assisted  by  an  English 
woman  who  had  had  partial  training  as  a nurse.  In  1913, 
through  Mrs.  Elmore’s  efforts  while  home  on  furlough,  the 
women  of  New  York  State  by  a special  gift  made  it  possible 
to  enlarge  the  old  dispensary  building.  Miss  Rorer  is  now 
(1921)  carrying  on  a small  hospital  of  five  beds  and  a daily 
dispensary  in  addition  to  holding  regular  classes  for  the  wdves 
of  the  seminary  students.  The  wives  live  on  the  compound 
with  their  husbands  and  children  and  are  thus  able  to  include, 
in  addition  to  their  work  in  the  seminary,  many  valuable  les- 
sons in  physiology,  hygiene,  nursing  and  the  care  of  children, 
and  become  just  so  much  more  valuable  as  pastors’  wives 
w’hen  they  settle  in  some  village  or  town  where  these  things 
are  unknown.  Miss  Rorer  wTites:  “The  women  in  my  classes 
are  beginning  to  practise  what  they  are  taught.  They  are 
learning  that  babies  can  be  given  w'ater  to  drink  without 
catching  cold,  and  that  their  little  stomachs  need  rest;  that 
many  of  baby’s  ills  come  from  overfeeding,  and  that  he 
should  be  fed  at  regular  intervals.”  Each  member  of  the 
midwifery  class  is  expected  to  conduct  a case  before  leaving 
the  seminary. 


13 


Twelve-Year-Old  Mother  and  Husband,  India 


A recent  epidemic  of  measles  followed  by  pneumonia  has 
emphasized  the  need  of  an  isolation  ward  ($500).  One  family 
brought  the  disease  to  the  compound,  and  as  every  house  on 
the  compound  was  filled  with  students  and  their  families  it 
spread  from  house  to  house.  ■ 

“A  dreadful  case  of  convulsions  was  brought  in  late  one  ^ 
night.  The  patient  had  been  all  day  with  her  temple  priest,  j 
who  told  the  family  that  if  they  would  give  him  a certain 
amount  of  money  he  would  drive  out  the  devils  that  were  inside 
the  woman.  As  darkness  drew  near  and  the  devils  seemed  to 
increase  in  number,  they  brought  her  on  a rope  bed  a distance  i 
of  seven  miles  to  see  what  success  the  missionaries  would  have 
over  their  ‘satanic  majesties.’  We  worked  over  her  until 
dawn  and  after  we  had  brought  her  little  one  we  sent  her 
home  apparently  to  die.  The  day  following  the  relatives 
were  here  before  six  a.  m.,  saying  that  she  was  alive,  and  beg- 
ging us  to  come  to  their  village.  We  started  at  once  and  while 
there  we  had  two  splendid  opportunities  of  presenting  the 
gospel  and  telling  of  the  great  love  of  the  Savior.  Once  it  was 
to  the  crowd  that  surrounded  the  dirty  little  outside  hut  where 


14 


the  patient  had  been  placed,  and  afterwards  to  another  big 
crowd  that  had  come  to  the  cattle  shed  in  which  we  were 
eating  our  lunch.  They  listened,  wondered,  and  confessed 
that  it  was  all  true.  Now  we  have  free  access  to  the  hearts 
of  these  people,  for  which  we  thanked  God  as  we  returned 
home  at  dusk,  tired  in  body  but  rested  in  spirit.” 

“So  the  medical  work  is  constantly  opening  the  way  for 
the  gospel.  Recently  while  among  the  Christians  in  a vil- 
lage seven  miles  away,  a Mala  woman  appeared  before  me 
and  said:  ‘Amah,  will  you  not  come  to  my  house  and  talk 
to  the  people?  My  husband’s  life  was  saved  at  your  hos- 
pital and  won’t  you  come  and  see  him?’  I found  the  en- 
closure filled  with  people,  and  for  nearly  an  hour  the  Bible 
woman  and  I had  a most  attentive  audience  while  we  told 
them  the  story  of  the  Savior.”  At  the  hospital  the  outside 
Hindus  frequently  ask  permission  to  attend  the  morning 
prayers  held  for  hospital  workers. 

ONGOLE 

At  Ongole  (30  miles  north  of  Ramapatnam),  the  Clough 
Memorial  Hospital  has  been  erected  in  honor  of  the  man  who 
spent  forty-two  years  of  his  life  in  the  service  of  the  Telugu 
people.  It  is  a general  hospital,  including  wards  for  women. 
This  hospital  is  the  fruit  of  years  of  effort  not  only  on  the 
part  of  the  missionaries  and  their  supporters  in  America,  but 
on  the  part  of  the  natives  themselves,  who  have  already 
made  great  sacrifices  to  add  to  the  hospital  fund.  They  ob- 
served not  a self-denial  week  or  a self-denial  month,  but  a self- 
denial  year,  and  ultimately  3,000  of  them  brought  in  their 
gifts,  which  amounted  to  $1,500.  Considering  the  fact  that 
the  average  wage  of  these  3,000  people  is  four  cents  a day 
for  the  women  and  six  cents  for  the  men,  this  subscription 
stands  unique  in  the  history  of  missions.  A group  of  school 
children  went  without  their  Sunday  morning  meal  for  the 
year  and  came  with  glad  faces  to  add  their  savings  to  the 
fund.  The  donors,  almost  to  a man,  sacrificed  the  necessities 
of  life;  their  luxuries  would  have  been  too  small  to  make  a 
showing.  The  richer  natives  help  to  maintain  the  hospital. 

The  Pasadena  Dispensary  was  first  completed  and  three 
of  its  rooms  were  used  for  wards  until  the  main  building  was 


15 


built.  Miss  Sigrid  Johnson  reports  15,371  treatments  in 
1919.  The  corps  of  workers  includes  one  sub-assistant  sur- 
geon, one  trained  nurse,  one  compounder,  two  ward  helpers, 
one  preacher  and  one  Bible  woman.  Each  worker  is  inter- 
ested not  only  in  his  own  line  of  work,  but  also  in  bringing  the 
knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ  to  each  patient.  Miss  Johnson 
tells  the  following  incident:  “There’s  Subbamma,  one  of  he 
dearest  and  sweetest-souled  little  women  you  could  find  any- 
where. She  came  to  us  despairing  of  this  life  and  with  no 
hope  of  a future  one.  After  several  months  treatment,  dur- 
ing which  her  leg  had  to  be  amputated,  she  was  able  to  go 
home  with  a face  as  full  of  hope  as  that  of  any  Christian.  No 
more  idols  for  Subbamma;  true,  she  can’t  read,  but  she  can 
sing  and  pray,  and  when  you  hear  her  pray  you  know  that 
she  knows  in  whom  she  has  believed.  Subbamma  is  a Sudra 
and  that  means  that  the  Sudras  of  Subbamma’s  town  will  be 
our  friends.  The  trouble  returned,  we  reamputated  her  leg, 
but  to  no  avail,  so  after  many  months  she  went  home  to  die. 
After  arriving  home  some  of  her  friends  and  members  of  her 
family  asked  of  what  avail  it  had  all  been — she  was  going  to  die 
anyhow.  To  which  Subbamma  made  reply,  ‘You  ask  me  what 
good  it  did?  Didn’t  I find  the  real,  true  God  there?  And 
then  you  ask  me  what  good  it  did.’  About  three  weeks  before 
her  death  she  sang  Christian  songs,  prayed  and  seemed  to 
converse  with  some  one.  When  asked  why  she  talked  ‘so 
crazy,’  she  again  made  her  defence:  ‘I  am  not  crazy,  but  a 
man  dressed  in  white  with  a book  under  his  arm  has  been 
here  and  he  asked  me  to  sing  my  Christian  songs,  to  talk  with 
him  and  tell  him  what  I learned  at  the  hospital.  I asked  him 
to  leave  the  book  and  he  said  “ No,  I was  sent  to  ask  you  these 
things,  and  in  two  weeks  I am  coming  for  you.’’  ’ Two  weeks 
later  she  died,  true  to  what  light  she  had  received,  and  with- 
out the  slightest  fear  of  death.  The  family  realized  the  differ- 
ence, for  they  did  not  put  her  on  the  ground  to  die,  an  im- 
memorial custom  of  the  Hindus.  Do  medical  missions  pay?’’ 

UDAYAGIRI 

At  Udayagiri  (69  miles  northwest  of  Nellore),  the  Etta 
Waterbury  Hospital  was  opened  in  1904,  in  charge  of  Mrs. 
F.  W.  Stait,  M.D.  The  main  building  contains  a matron’s 


16 


Native  Ambulance,  India 


room  and  three  wards.  Outside  the  main  building  is  the 
nurses’  house  and  the  maternity  ward,  which  is  fitted  with 
seventeen  beds.  In  1916-17  a contagious  ward  was  opened. 
Originally  designed  for  women  and  children,  this  is  now  a 
general  hospital,  treating  both  men  and  women.  It  is  situ- 
ated fifty  miles  from  a railway  in  the  jungle  among  the 
mountains  of  the  eastern  Ghats.  The  people  of  the  town 
and  district  are  sunk  in  heathenism  and  it  is  difficult  to  win 
them  from  their  old  superstitious  practises;  nevertheless,  the 
leaven  of  the  gospel  is  slowly  but  steadily  permeating  their 
life.  Dr.  Stait  writes:  “A  letter  which  we  received  from  Mr. 
Stait,  who  has  been  out  in  camp,  brought  us  no  small  measure 
of  joy.  He  said  that  in  almost  every  village  he  finds  some  one 
who  knows  of  Christ  because  of  the  days  or  weeks  spent  in  the 
Udayagiri  mission  hospital.  One  old  man  explained  to  a 
group  gathered  around  him  in  the  evening  twilight  the  story 
of  Christ’s  power  to  save.  When  asked  where  he  got  hold 
of  the  truth,  he  replied:  ‘Have  I not  been  in  the  hospital 
for  weeks  and  can  we  be  there  without  hearing  of  Yesu 
Christu?’  The  way  to  the  villagers’  hearts  is  made  easier  if 


17 


they  have  been  in  the  wards  themselves  or  had  friends  there. 
Almost  all  the  cases  we  get  are  about  as  bad  as  they  can 
be,  for  before  they  will  consent  to  my  ‘English  medicine’ 
they  have  gone  to  quack  after  quack  so  that  they  reach  our 
gate  in  a dying  condition.  One  young  man  who  died  as  the 
bed  on  which  he  was  being  carried  was  lifted  through  the 
gateway  had  been  sick  for  two  months.  Being  wealthy,  he 
was  too  valuable  a victim  to  escape  the  clutches  of  the  cruel 
hakims.  From  village  to  village  they  carried  him,  staying 
a week  here  and  a week  there,  always  being  told,  as  he  grew 
worse  instead  of  better,  of  some  one  farther  on  who,  for  a 
larger  sum,  would  certainly  accomplish  a cure.  When  at  last 
death  approached  and  the  hakims  saw  there  was  nothing  more 
to  be  gained,  in  order  to  avert  the  onus  of  a death  at  their 
doorways  they  sent  the  worn  and  tortured  body  to  us,  only 
to  die  before  he  could  be  lifted  from  the  rope  bed  on  which  he 
had  made  those  long  weary  journeys.  In  other  cases  we 
have  been  more  fortunate  and  have  had  the  joy  of  seeing  death 
conquered  and  the  sufferer  nursed  back  to  health.  A Moham- 
medan once  remarked  with  a smile  when,  a bad  case  having 
been  brought  in,  I expressed  a fear  that  he  might  be  taken 
elsewhere  to  die;  ‘Do  not  fear.  Mama,  no  one  would  touch 
filth,  stench  and  rottenness  but  your  people  here.’ 

“Recently  a seven-year-old  boy  was  brought  in  with  a 
fractured  arm.  His  relatives  had  tied  a ligature  around  the 
site  of  the  broken  bones,  stopping  all  circulation.  When  it 
began  to  look  badly  they  had  called  in  a native  quack,  who, 
making  a paste  of  corrosive  sublimate  and  some  other  won- 
derful ingredient,  plastered  it  over  the  arm  from  the  wrist 
to  the  elbow.  When  the  tortured  child  reached  us  little  was 
left  but  rotting  flesh  clinging  to  ruined  bone.  For  thirteen 
dreadful  days  we  dressed  the  arm,  with  death  always  immi- 
nent, while  permission  to  amputate  was  refused.  At  last 
the  uncle  gave  consent  to  operate.  During  the  long  weeks 
which  followed  I never  saw  more  patient  endurance,  and  to 
our  joy  Kondiah  went  home  well.’’ 

HANUMAKONDA 

At  Hanumakonda  (about  300  miles  northwest  from 
Madras,  in  the  Deccan),  there  is  a general  hospital  with  good 


18 


buildings  erected  with  money  raised  locally  or  from  per- 
sonal friends  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Timpany.  Many  government 
officials  live  in  the  town,  which  is  largely  Mohammedan. 
The  Woman’s  So- 
ciety makes  an 
annual  appropria- 
tion for  medical 
work  for  women  in 
this  hospital,  and 
for  several  years 
had  a trained 
nurse  there.  Miss 
Lillian  V.  Wagner, 
and  later  Dr.  Ka- 
therine Gerow.  At 
present  (1921) 
there  is  no  Ameri- 
can woman  doctor 
there,  but  a very 
efficient  Eurasian 
trained  nurse  cares 
for  the  woman’s  work.  Dr.  Timpany  writes:  “Our  med- 
ical work  is  now  growing  with  leaps  and  bounds.  We  have 
many  more  patients  in  the  hospital,  both  men  and  women, 
then  ever  before.  Since  our  new  head  nurse  joined  us  in  our 
work,  she  has  added  much  to  the  efficiency  of  our  staff,  and 
with  her  perfect  understanding  of  Hindustani  and  Moham- 
medan w'ays  is  winning  many  of  that  important  class,  and  they 
are  now  coming  more  and  more  into  our  wards.  We  have 
never  before  had  so  many  midwifery  cases  in  our  wards  and, 
considering  the  prejudice  against  a man  doctor  for  women, 
the  large  number  of  Mohammedan  women  patients  in  our 
wards  is  evidence  of  a remarkable  change  in  sentiment.  The 
government  hospital,  though  it  has  a lady  doctor,  does  not  as 
a rule  get  these  cases,  for  they  prefer  to  come  to  us.’’ 

NALGONDA 

Nalgonda  is  situated  in  the  Deccan  about  seventy  miles 
from  Hanumakonda  in  a Mohammedan  community.  Hos- 
pital work  in  Nalgonda  is  not  new.  The  work  was  started  in 


Dispensary,  Udayagiri,  South  India 


19 


1896  with  the  arrival  of  Dr.  Lorena  M.  Breed,  who  with  her 
associate  nurse,  Miss  Annie  Magilton,  gained  access  to  scores 
of  Mohammedan  high  caste  Hindu  homes  and  was  beloved  by- 

all  to  whom  she 
ministered.  The 
Mennonites  of 
Russia  contrib- 
uted largely  to  the 
work,  and  a wo- 
man’s hospital  and 
surgical  ward  were 
established.  A 
trained  nurse  was 
added  in  1897,  but 
the  work  has  been 
fated  to  numerous 
interruptions. 
Miss  Aganetha 
Neufeld  assumed 
charge  of  the  work  in  1915,  having  been  adopted  by  our  Soci- 
ety because  the  Mennonites,  on  account  of  the  war,  were 
unable  to  continue  her  support.  The  following  letter  from 
Miss  Neufeld  gives  a fair  idea  of  the  difficulties  which  she 
encountered  on  taking  up  the  work:  “The  hospital  servants 
were  scattered  and  I had  to  collect  them  and  win  anew  the 
confidence  of  the  people,  but  thanks  to  God,  the  people  show 
nsw  confidence  in  us  and  in  the  hospital,  and  are  coming  more 
and  more  from  all  castes  and  creeds.  The  native  nurses  and 
helpers  have  done  very  well  and  the  Bible  woman  at  the 
hospital  does  good  and  efficient  work.  Here  in  Nalgonda 
there  is  so  much  suffering  and  so  much  work  that  I often 
wish  we  could  have  a qualified  doctor,  for  we  both  could  find 
work  enough  to  do.” 

Mr.  Unruh,  the  missionary  in  general  charge  of  the  sta- 
tion, writes  that  Nalgonda  is  sixty-eight  miles  from  Secun- 
derabad and  that  they  have  to  go  that  distance  for  all  sup- 
plies and  for  a doctor.  There  is  no  telegraphic  connection 
and  no  railway.  They  have  to  go  in  ox  carts  and  allow  eight 
days  to  go  and  return.  After  a three  days’  trip  in  an  ox  cart 
going  and  the  same  returning,  they  are  so  worn  out  that  they 


20 


have  to  have  several  days’  rest.  They  lost  their  two  little 
boys  because  there  was  no  doctor  near  enough  to  help.  Mr. 
Unruh  himself  was  very  sick  at  one  time  and  his  wife  was 
alone  to  care  for  him.  One  can  understand  their  happiness 
when  Miss  Neufeld  was  adopted  by  our  Board  and  sent  to 
Nalgonda. 

Difficult  as  the  work  is,  Miss  Neufeld  has  attacked  it  with 
an  enthusiasm  and  evangelistic  passion  which  are  certain 
to  surmount  all  obstacles.  She  writes:  “The  hospital  work 
in  this  place  is  going  on  very  well  indeed.  The  work  of  a 
nurse  in  this  country  is  very  different  from  the  work  at  home. 
As  we  have  no  doctor  here,  I often  have  to  take  the  place 
and  have  the  courage  of  a doctor,  and  have  to  do  things  which 
a nurse  at  home  dares  not  do. 

“Some  days  ago  I was  called  to  a woman  of  the  goldsmith 
caste.  When  I arrived  many  women  gathered  to  see  me  and 
expressed  their  wonder  that  I should  come  to  this  country. 
I told  them  I had  heard  of  their  sufferings  and  had  come  to 
help  them — that  it  was  love  for  them  that  had  brought  me 
here.  Then  I told  them  of  the  great  love  of  the  Savior  and 
how  he  left  his  home  for  our  sakes.  Great  was  the  interest 
of  those  women  in  this  wonderful  story.  I am  glad  to  say 
that  although  I am  not  engaged  in  evangelistic  work,  so  many 
chances  are  given  to  me  to  tell  the  story  that  I feel  like  an 
evangelistic  missionary.” 

During  the  year  1920-21  one  hundred  in-patients  and 
14,800  treatments  were  reported. 

The  woman’s  hospital  has  been  very  inadequate  and  has 
been  located  on  the  crowded  compound  of  the  general  society. 
Miss  Neufeld  has  walked  the  mile  from  her  residence  to  this 
compound  for  years.  Nineteen  twenty-one  will  see,  we  hope, 
a new,  adequate  building  on  land  adjacent  to  the  woman’s 
compound,  appropriation  for  this  having  been  already  made. 

SOORIAPETT 

Sooriapett  (thirty  miles  northwest  from  Nalgonda),  is  the 
second  station  to  be  opened  in  the  Deccan  by  workers  sent  to 
India  by  the  Mennonites  of  Russia.  There  is  a good  hos- 
pital on  the  compound  near  the  public  road  which  leads  to 
the  town  of  Sooriapett.  Here  Mrs.  A.  J.  Hubert,  with  the 


21 


help  of  four  native  nurses  and  two  assistants,  is  doing  a 
blessed  work  among  the  needy  people  of  this  community, 
the  record  for  the  year  1920  showing  371  patients  and  18,086 
treatments. 

Mrs.  Hubert  gives  special  praise  to  her  native  helpers,  say- 
ing: “The  native  nurses,  Bible  woman  and  preacher  have 
done  splendid  work  for  us  in  the  hospital.” 

MAHBUBNAGAR 

Mahbubnagar,  formerly  called  Palmur  (situated  nearly  100 
miles  southwest  of  Nalgonda,  in  the  Deccan),  is  a place  made 
easily  accessible  by  the  new  railway  from  Hyderabad  to 
Kurnool.  Moreover,  the  dry,  cool  climate,  (Mahbubnagar 
is  3,000  feet  above  sea  level),  makes  it  possible  that  much- 
needed  tubercular  work  may  be  begun  here  in  the  near  future. 
Indeed  the  officials  have  offered  any  property  we  may  choose 
for  that  purpose. 

The  hospital  originally  built  by  Rev.  E.  Chute  from  famine 
funds  was  remodeled  and  repaired  in  1913,  the  present  usable 
building  being  the  result.  It  is  an  eight-room  building,  and  in 
the  absence  of  a residence  building  the  doctor  lives  in  one 
wing,  using  one  room  for  an  office  and  the  two  others  for 
living  rooms.  There  is  also  a small  two-room  building  used 
as  a nurses’  home.  As  the  training  department  grows  en- 
largement will  become  necessary. 

Dr.  Marian  Farbar  came  in  1914  to  practically  a new  work, 
the  hospital  work  having  been  discontinued  for  nine  years 
previous  to  the  remodeling  of  the  building.  Dr.  Farbar 
bravely  started  out  with  an  equipment  for  only  dispensary 
work  and  with  a borrowed  operating  table,  supplemented 
later  by  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars’  worth  of  furniture. 
Absolutely  necessary  additions  were  made  from  time  to  time. 
The  New  England  District  has  given  as  its  Jubilee  gift  (1921) 
a new  hospital  for  Mahbubnagar,  with  its  equipment  and 
ambulance.  The  land  is  acquired.  Dr.  Farbar  is  now  about 
to  start  the  building. 

When  Dr.  Farbar  was  home  on  sick  leave.  Dr.  Florence 
Weaver  came  from  Nellore  for  a time  and  later  Nandamah 
of  Kanigiri,  assisted  by  the  efficient  compounder  Annamah, 
was  in  charge. 


22 


Giving  the  Baby  Its  Daily  Bath  in  India 


Dr.  Farbar  has  been  conspicuously  successful  in  winning 
access  to  the  homes,  both  Mohammedan  and  Hindu.  One 
of  the  evangelistic  missionaries  writes  of  her:  “Dr.  Farbar 
is  getting  into  homes  which  I find  locked.  No  Bible  women 
can  reach  these  shut-in  women,  but  the  woman  physician  is 
most  welcome.” 

One  of  the  greatest  difficulties  to  overcome  in  a place 
where  the  work  is  so  new  is  the  fear  of  “the  white  man” 
which  still  lingers  in  the  minds  of  the  ignorant  masses.  Dr. 
Farbar  writes  of  the  following  cases:  “The  dispensary  was 
closing  at  noon  when  a Brahman  woman  from  the  village 
appeared.  She  stood  safely  away  from  the  shadow  of  the 
veranda,  for  the  fear  born  when  she  first  heard  of  the  hos- 
pital had  grown  to  terror  as  she  entered  the  gate.  When  I 
appeared  she  asked,  ‘Is  it  a man  or  a woman?’  The  answer 
given  by  the  nurses  did  not  seem  to  help  matters,  for  she 
gave  her  symptoms  from  a distance,  let  us  know  that  it  was 
a case  of  ‘hands  off’  and  ‘please  will  you  give  me  only  a 
writing  medicine  (medicine  for  external  application),  for 
your  liquid  preparations  will  have  water  in  them  from  your 
well,  and  we  may  not  drink  them.’ 

“Morning  prayers  were  just  over  and  the  dispensary 


23 


opening  when  a couple  from  the  poorer  class  came  up  the 
drive  carrying  a child  sick  with  pneumonia.  One  glance  at 
those  simple  folk,  breathless  with  fear,  gave  one  a reading  of 
the  minds  of  all  their  class  in  that  new  uncultivated  district. 
At  the  sight  of  the  stethoscope  they  ran  with  the  poor  babe, 
so  in  need  of  care,  and  no  entreaty  could  recall  them.  ‘ The 
white  doctor  has  knives  and  needles  and  rubber  things  which 
are  only  good  for  white  people;  our  anatomy  is  different 
from  theirs,  and  what  is  good  for  them  is  not  good  for  us,  ’ is 
their  theory;  and  we  know  what  our  first  task  with  this  large 
class  of  people  is.  It  comes  near  home  when  we  find  our 
nurses  in  training,  who  are  local  girls,  cutting  catheters 
because  they  fear  their  use  on  patients,  and  we  realize  that 
our  greatest  immediate  obstacle  to  doing  modern  medical 
work  is  not  our  lack  of  equipment,  but  the  existence  of  super- 
stition and  fear.  A year  or  so  finds  things  very  different, 
and  the  demand  for  things  modern  is  far  ahead  of  our  supply. 
Patients  of  all  classes,  castes  and  religions  are  willing  to 
come  into  our  unfurnished  wards,  submit  to  operations  in 
our  unequipped  operating  room,  and  now  and  then  beg  us  to 
perform  an  operation  which  we  are  not  prepared  to  do  be- 
cause of  the  lack  of  special  sets  of  instruments  or  sterilizers 
or  of  a competent  anesthetist.  When  we  urge  them  to  take 
the  patient  miles  away  to  the  government  hospital  in  the 
city,  they  refuse,  for  the  Indian  people  are  great  home  folk 
and  will  seldom  go  to  a distant  place,  especially  in  time  of 
illness.  We  begrudge  the  loss  of  so  many  opportunities  in 
this  way  and  we  long  for  the  day  when  our  new  hospital  will 
be  enlarged  and  equipped  in  all  departments  to  meet  the  needs 
of  this  district.” 

The  growing  confidence  and  appreciation  of  the  educated 
and  well-to-do  people  are  a source  of  great  encouragement 
to  the  workers.  “Madam,  will  you  operate  with  sense  or 
without?”  Dr.  Farbar  was  asked  by  a shrewd,  English- 
speaking  Brahman.  Controlling  her  amusement,  she  an- 
swered, “It  will  be  done  under  an  anesthetic;  your  wife  will 
not  feel  the  pain,”  and  the  answer  was  received  with  perfect 
composure. 

Again  Dr.  Farbar  writes  of  a most  interesting  trip  of  forty 
miles  to  the  king’s  palace,  attended  by  a special  cortege. 


24 


to  visit  professionally  the  sixteen-year-old  wife  of  the  rajah. 
Such  is  the  work  we  have  already  established  in  South 
India,  but  it  is  the  merest  beginning  in  this  great  field.  There 
are  22,000,000  people  in  the  Madras  Presidency  and  the  Dec- 
can,  for  the  evangelization  of  6,072,538  of  whom  we  Baptists 
are  solely  responsible.  Other  societies  work  in  this  section — 
American  Lutherans,  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel,  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  American  Metho- 
dists— but  while  all  have  representatives  in  the  large  centers 
like  Secunderabad  and  Madras,  there  is  no  overlapping,  for 
the  territory  is  divided  among  the  different  denominations, 
the  Telugu  field  being  exclusively  under  the  cultivation  of  the 
Baptists. 

From  a medical  point  of  view  it  would  be  difficult  to  find 
a more  needy  field.  In  the  region  about  Ongole,  for  instance, 
prior  to  the  inception  of  the  medical  work,  there  was  no  build- 
ing suitably  equipped  for  hospital  service  within  a terri- 
tory of  5,000  square  miles.  Here  in  America  there  is  one 
doctor  for  every  1,500  people,  but  out  in  this  district,  popu- 
lated by  more  than  600,000  people,  a number  equal  to  six 
average  cities  in  the  United  States,  there  was  not  one 
physician. 

The  need  for  hospitals  for  women  is  even  more  urgent, 
for  even  in  places  where  there  are  government  hospitals — 
always  in  the  towns,  whereas  ninety  per  cent  of  the  people 
are  villagers — these  are  general  hospitals  and  because  of 
the  moral  and  social  conditions  respectable  families  are  very 
loath  to  send  their  women  into  them,  though  they  sometimes 
make  exception  of  a mission  general  hospital  because  of  the 
more  careful  supervision  guaranteed  in  it. 

LUDHIANA 

In  the  face  of  such  need  the  situation  would  seem  hope- 
less were  it  not  for  the  evident  success  of  the  newly  estab- 
lished medical  schools  for  the  training  of  native  physicians 
and  nurses.  The  Woman’s  Medical  College  at  Ludhiana,  in 
the  far  north  of  India,  was  established  in  1895  through  the 
cooperation  of  seven  mission  boards  and  has  drawn  students 
from  all  parts  of  India,  even  from  Nellore  and  the  far  south. 
Graduates  of  the  college  are  already  ministering  to  over  half 


25 


a million  women  and  children  in  hospitals  and  dispensaries 
and  their  number  is  increasing  yearly. 

Three  Baptist  girls  from  the  Telugu  field  (see  frontispiece) 
have  taken  this  long  journey  for  the  sake  of  the  medical  training 
they  could  not  at  the  time  get  elsewhere.  One  is  Minnie  Rung- 
iah,  daughter  of  Dr.  Timpany’s  trusted  assistant  at  Hanuma- 
konda.  As  a little  girl  Minnie  used  to  follow  Dr.  Timpany 
about  the  hospital  and  compound,  telling  him  that  when  she 
grew  up  she  wanted  to  learn  how  to  help  the  sick  women  and 
children  of  India.  To  this  purpose  she  steadily  adhered 
through  the  mission  school  and  the  Nellore  Girls’  High 
School,  and  refusing  several  good  offers  of  marriage,  she  en- 
tered upon  her  nurses’  training  course  at  Ludhiana.  Since 
her  graduation  in  1918  she  has  served  as  trained  nurse  at 
Hanumakonda. 

Kanthama,  also  a Nellore  High  School  graduate,  daughter 
of  a fine  native  Christian  preacher,  is  another  Ludhiana  grad- 
uate, who  is  now  medical  assistant  at  Nellore,  with  the  title 
Licentiate  of  Medicine  and  Surgery. 

Nandamah  of  Kanigiri,  another  graduate  of  the  Nellore 
High  School,  was  graduated  from  Ludhiana  in  April,  1918.  She 
is  a lovely  Christian  girl  from  a Christian  home,  her  grand- 
parents being  among  the  2,222  baptized  in  a single  day  by 
Dr.  Clough.  After  her  graduation  she  was  called  to  render 
much-needed  assistance  in  our  Woman’s  Hospital  at  Nellore 


Maternity  Ward,  Udayagiri,  South  India 
26 


when  both  Dr.  Benjamin  and  Dr.  Degenring  were  taken  from 
the  work  by  serious  illness.  It  is  difficult  to  imagine  what 
we  should  have  done  in  this  predicament  without  Nandamah, 
with  whose  assistance  Dr.  Weaver  was  enabled  to  keep 
the  hospital  open.  She  was  chosen  to  come  to  America  in 
1921  as  the  Jubilee  guest  from  South  India. 

VELLORE 

Too  much  cannot  be  said  of  the  courage  of  these  timid, 
home-loving  Indian  girls  who,  often  with  the  reluctant  con- 
sent of  their  people,  have  decided  upon  the  great  adventure 
and  have  gone  more  than  a thousand  miles  from  their  homes 
among  people  who  speak  a strange  language.  That  this  sac- 
rifice shall  be  unnecessary,  the  new  Union  Medical  College 
has  been  established  at  Vellore,  South  India.  The  Mary 
Taber  Schell  Memorial  Hospital  became  a part  of  the  school. 
A fine  compound  of  several  acres  in  Vellore  town,  and  a tract 
of  125  acres  outside  Vellore,  await  the  arrival  of  better  condi- 
tions, when  it  is  hoped  to  go  on  with  the  larger  program  in 
connection  with  building  on  the  sites  and  opening  the  College 
in  quarters  of  its  own,  rather  than  in  its  present  rented  build- 
ings. 

It  is  the  answer  of  Christian  women  to  the  pitiful  appeal 
of  India’s  suffering  women,  who  are  born  and  who  live  and 
die  with  no  medical  aid.  High  caste  women  cannot  be  treated 
by  men  and  superstitious  women  of  the  lower  class  shun 
government  hospitals,  which  are  all  too  few.  The  British 
Government  could  not  touch  this  work  without  medical 
women.  Few  doctors  seek  the  trying  climate,  rigorous  work 
and  small  pay  of  the  medical  missionary. 

For  permanent  relief  we  must  train  hundreds  of  India’s 
women  to  be  doctors.  Will  they  take  training?  The  Sur- 
geon-General of  Madras  Presidency  said,  “If  you  can  per- 
suade six  girls  to  study  we  will  give  you  a grant.’’  Sixty- 
nine  demanded  entrance.  Not  all  were  qualified,  but  eighteen 
were  able  to  enter  the  class  of  1918.  Dr.  Ida  Scudder,  grand- 
daughter of  the  first  medical  missionary  to  India,  is  president. 
Drs.  Jessie  and  Elizabeth  Findlay  from  Canada  arrived  in 
1920  to  assist  Dr.  Scudder.  One  hundred  and  twenty-five 
Indian  girls  have  applied  for  the  class  of  1921.  Not  all  are 


27 


Stall  of  Union  Medical  College,  Vellore,  South  India 


qualified,  but  it  shows  their  eagerness  to  study  medicine. 
One  hundred  were  turned  away. 

From  out  of  these  colleges  issues  year  by  year  an  ever- 
increasing  band  of  consecrated  young  women — reenforce- 
ments for  the  great  League  of  Pity  which  is  to  minister  to 
the  suffering  women  and  children  of  India  and  contribute 
in  no  small  measure  to  the  redemption  of  that  great  land. 


BURMA 

MOULMEIN 

Our  medical  wmrk  in  Burma  is  centered  about  one  hospital, 
the  Ellen  Mitchell  Memorial  in  Moulmein.  The  hospital 
was  opened  in  1917,  but  it  was  begun  years  before  in  the 


28 


faith  and  prayers  of  Dr.  Ellen  Mitchell,  who  went  out  to 
Burma  in  1879,  the  same  year  in  which  Dr.  Daniells  went 
to  China.  With  Dr.  Daniells  she  represents  our  Society 
among  the  pioneer  women  medical  missionaries. 

At  the  age  of  thirty  Dr.  Mitchell  became  an  army  nurse  in 
the  Civil  War,  serving  three  years  in  this  capacity.  In  1871 
she  was  graduated  from  the  Women’s  Medical  College  in 
New  York,  and  in  1879,  at  the  age  of  fifty  years,  sailed  as  a 
missionary  to  Moulmein,  Burma,  accompanied  by  Miss  A.  M. 
Barkley,  nurse.  Arrived  in  Moulmein  and  established  in  a 
residence  that  had  been  repaired  for  their  use,  they  began 
work  at  once.  Patients  came  daily  for  medicine  and  one  pa- 
tient was  received  into  the  house.  Dr.  Mitchell  began  a 
course  of  lectures  for  English-speaking  women  and  Miss 
Barkley  a training  class  for  nurses  with  eleven  members. 

During  the  second  year  Dr.  Mitchell  reported  419  patients 
prescribed  for  at  her  home,  124  at  their  own  homes,  while  ten 
had  been  inmates  of  her  so-called  hospital,  part  of  a large  room 
in  her  house. 

The  following  year  showed  twenty-three  patients  in  the 
little  home-hospital,  but  Dr.  Mitchell  had  become  convinced 
that  under  existing  conditions  it  was  impracticable  for  her  to 
attempt  to  carry  the  hospital  with  her  outside  work.  There 
was  the  housekeeping,  not  only  for  herself  but  for  the  hos- 
pital when  there  were  patients,  overseeing  carpenters  and  re- 
pairs, acting  as  apothecary  and  often  as  nurse,  besides  the  dis- 
pensary, hospital  and  outside  work.  Jungle  trips  and  the  care 
of  four  mission  schools  in  Moulmein  and  of  individual  pupils 
in  neighboring  stations  were  added  to  the  rest.  But  although 
the  hospital  work  was  held  back  as  far  as  possible,  it  could 
not  be  entirely  given  up  and  indeed  showed  steady  growth 
from  year  to  year.  In  1883,  Miss  Barkley  having  gone  to 
Zigon,  and  a native  Christian  physician.  Dr.  Shaw  Loo,  having 
come  to  Dr.  Mitchell’s  assistance  in  the  double  capacity  of 
doctor  and  evangelist,  the  little  home-hospital  registered  fifty- 
four  patients,  and  for  years  the  average  was  about  fifty. 

In  some  years  no  mission  funds  aside  from  her  own  sal- 
ary were  used  by  Dr.  Mitchell  in  the  medical  department,  re- 
ceipts having  met  expenditures,  including  Dr.  Shaw  Loo’s  sal- 
ary and  that  of  Ko  Yan  Gin,  a Burman  preacher  who  was 


29 


Children’s  Ward,  Ellen  Mitchell  Memorial  Hospital 


put  in  charge  of  a little  booth  in  the  large  town  bazar,  where 
a few  of  the  common  medicines  were  kept  as  an  attraction, 
but  where  the  main  commodity  consisted  of  portions  of  the 
Scriptures  and  tracts. 

When  Dr.  Mitchell  went  to  Burma  in  1879  it  was  with  the 
desire  and  expectation  of  making  the  hospital  and  training  of 
nurses  the  chief  part  of  her  work  and  it  was  a source  of  great 
disappointment  and  regret  to  her  that  this  could  not  be,  for 
she  believed  it  not  only  far  more  satisfactory  professionally, 
but  from  the  evangelistic  viewpoint.  Yet  in  all  the  years  she 
never  allowed  her  disappointment  to  affect  her  work.  This 
was  self-supporting  from  the  first  with  the  exception  of  her 
own  salary,  and  for  years  even  that  was  turned  back  into  the 
mission  treasury. 

Dr.  Mitchell’s  powers  and  initiative  did  not  fail  with  ad- 
vancing age.  In  her  seventieth  year  she  began  a leper  asylum, 
with  a temporary  bamboo  structure  for  a shelter,  and  started 
raising  the  funds  for  permanent  buildings.  After  twenty-two 
years  of  devoted  service  “the  little  doctor’’  entered  into  rest 


30 


in  Burma,  April  5,  1901,  greatly  mourned  by  missionaries  and 
natives  alike,  for  her  beautiful  Christian  spirit  had  endeared 
her  to  all.  Her  cherished  desire  to  establish  a maternity  hos- 
pital and  training  school  for  nurses  in  Moulmein  was  never 
realized  in  her  lifetime,  but  in  1917 — sixteen  years  after  her 
death — a site  was  procured  and  on  it  a fine  old  residence  suit- 
able to  form  a nucleus  of  what  is  now  known  as  The  Ellen 
Mitchell  Memorial  Hospital.  Back  of  the  acquiring  of  the 
property  lies  a wonderful  story  of  faith  and  love — the  faith 
and  love  of  Dr.  Mitchell  and  the  faith  and  prayers  of  others 
who  followed  after  her  and  shared  her  passionate  desire  to 
meet  the  need  of  the  suffering  women  and  children  of  Burma. 
We  will  let  Rev.  A.  C.  Darrow,  a member  of  the  Moulmein 
Mission,  tell  the  story  in  his  own  way: 

“Almost  fifteen  years  ago  my  attention  was  called  to  the 
great  need  in  Burma  for  trained  nurses  and  to  the  plan  of 
Dr.  Ellen  Mitchell  to  establish  in  Moulmein  a maternity  hos- 
pital and  training  school  for  nurses.  I resolved  then,  if  God 
led  the  way  and  I found  conditions  as  they  had  been  repre- 
sented, that  I would  do  all  in  my  power  to  meet  this  need. 

“Seven  years  ago  I decided  upon  the  property  which  I 
believed  was  best  adapted  to  this  work,  and  one  afternoon  I 
trespassed  on  my  neighbor’s  compound  and  kneeling  in  prayer 
I took  it  in  faith  for  this  medical  work.  Not  long  afterward 
Mr.  Carre,  captain  of  a British  steamer,  took  breakfast  with 
us,  and  I called  his  attention  to  this  property  and  to  our  need 
and  asked  him  for  an  initial  gift  for  this  work.  A day  or  two 
later  I received  a check  from  the  office  of  the  steamship  com- 
pany for  Rs.  500.  I laid  this  matter  before  the  little  body 
of  Talain*  Christians,  who  were  raising  a thank-offering  of 
Rs.  10,000  for  their  work.  Five  years  passed.  About  six 
months  before  the  Judson  Centennial,  my  attention  was  called 
to  the  fact  that  the  property  I desired  had  been  foreclosed 
and  was  to  be  sold  in  two  days  at  public  auction.  God  sent  a 
Moulmein  rain  and  I sent  an  agent,  the  only  bidder,  who 
bought  the  property  for  a song.  The  business  men  said  it 
was  a gift;  seven  acres,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  compounds 


*The  Talains  are  a distinct  race,  and  though  for  a century  and  a half  they  have  been 
dominated  politically  by  the  Burmans,  many  of  them  show  characteristics  of  strength 
and  nobility. 


31 


Staff  of  Ellen  Mitchell  Memorial  Hospital 

Dr.  Martha  Gifford  in  center  of  group.  Back  row.  left  to  right:  Daisy, 
Dora,  Mary,  Ma  Thein  Me;  front  row:  Miss  Selma  Maxville,  Ma  Ka 
She,  Ma  Hla  Yin,  Ma  Ye 


in  Moulmein  and  the  East,  with  a fine  old  teak  residence.  The 
Talain  Christians  purchased  the  property  with  their  “Thank 
Offering  Fund,”  and  presented  it  to  the  Society  for  work 
among  Talain  women  and  the  women  of  Burma.  The  building 
so  providentially  acquired  is  on  a commanding  site,  the  finest 
in  Moulmein.” 

It  was  the  generous  gift  from  Mrs.  Rockefeller’s  legacy 
that  enabled  the  Board  to  promise  the  $10,000  required  to 


make  the  necessary  additions  to  the  spacious  old  teak  resi- 
dence. The  government  and  Burmese  citizens  of  Moulmein 
contributed  half  the  amount  necessary  for  the  furniture  and 
equipment.  The  hospital  opened  in  1918  with  one  American 
physician,  Dr.  Martha  Gifford  (later  there  must  be  two) 
and  an  American  nurse,  Miss  Selma  Maxville,  assisted  by 
Ma  H’  La  Yin,  a young  Talain  woman  who  was  brought  to 
America  by  Mr.  Darrow  and  completed  a full  course  in  nurse’s 
training  at  the  Missouri  Baptist  Sanitarium.  It  is  confidently 
expected  that  with  government  grants  and  local  contribu- 
tions the  hospital  will  very  soon  become  self-supporting. 

In  the  annual  report  for  1920,  Dr.  Gifford  writes: 

“The  numbers  of  patients  tell  the  story.  The  net  num- 
bers have  not  been  large,  but  for  the  most  part  have  been 
growing.  The  number  of  dispensary  visits  for  the  year  will 
run  well  over  3,000.  There  are  few  of  the  many  races  and 
tribes  of  cosmopolitan  Burma  who  have  not  knocked  at  our 
doors. 

“They  have  come  with  varied  purposes.  Supposedly  all 
patients  come  to  a hospital  to  be  cured,  but  we  have  discov- 
ered other  motives.  Cotton  cloth  and  rice  have  their  price 
these  days  and  this  has  not  been  without  its  effect.  It  un- 
doubtedly has  been  one  of  the  factors  that  have  brought 
fatherless  and  motherless  children  to  us.  It  is  easy  for  those 
who  see  that  we  love  children  and  put  forth  every  effort  to 
restore  them  to  health  to  conclude  that  we  would  be  glad  to 
take  any  child  and  keep  it  always.  Consequently  we  have 
had  many  offers  of  children  whose  friends  were  unable  or  un- 
willing to  care  for  them.  Other  patients  have  come  because 
it  was  a happier  place  than  their  homes. 

“Some  may  believe  in  foreign  medicine  or  the  foreigners’ 
religion  or  both,  but  there  are  many  who  have  no  use  for 
either  and  to  such  the  worth  must  be  clearly  demonstrated. 

“One  evening  an  emergency  case  was  brought  to  us  from 
that  village.  The  woman  was  almost  in  a state  of  collapse. 
God  was  good  to  us  and  in  ten  minutes  we  did  a piece  of  work 
which  put  her  out  of  danger  and  made  her  comfortable. 
Two  sisters  were  allowed  to  remain  with  her  that  night,  but 
on  the  following  night  as  she  was  much  better  they  were 
asked  to  stay  elsewhere.  On  their  return  they  asked  her 


33 


how  she  was  and  if  we  really  had  been  so  good  to  her  while 
they  were  gone  as  while  they  were  there.  When  she  replied 
that  there  had  been  no  difference,  they  said,  “Why  this  place 
is  just  like  heaven.”  This  remark  was  made  to  our  little 
seamstress,  who  took  it  as  an  opportunity  to  speak  a word 
for  the  Master  and  the  heaven  that  he  has  prepared. 

“We  have  eight  faithful  girls  in  training  and  we  pray  not 
only  that  we  may  be  able  to  give  them  the  needed  professional 
training,  but  that  they  may  go  out  with  that  training  of 
heart  which  will  make  them  worthy  followers  of  the  Great 
Physician.”  


ASSAM 

In  our  whole  mission  field  in  Assam  we  have  as  yet  no 
hospital  for  women  and  children.  A field  the  area  of  Michi- 
gan and  no  woman  doctor!  That  there  is  great  need  for  one  is 
sufficiently  emphasized  by  the  recent  experience  of  our  young 
women  missionaries  with  an  outbreak  of  cholera  in  the  Girls’ 
School  at  Nowgong.  Our  admiration  and  wonder  were 
aroused  at  the  way  these  young  women,  fresh  from  their 
sheltered  life  in  America,  faced  the  situation  and  by  a won- 
derfully organized  quarantine  and  care  stayed  an  epidemic  of 
this  swift  and  terrible  disease. 

West  Central  District  by  its  Jubilee  gift  has  made  possible 
the  long-desired  hospital.  Anticipating  the  woman  doctor 
and  hospital.  Miss  Edna  Stever,  graduate  nurse,  was  sent  out 
in  1919.  The  year  following  two  more  well-trained  nurses. 
Misses  Marvin  and  Blakely,  went  to  the  help  of  our  girls’ 
schools  and  for  a time  are  aiding  in  the  hospitals  of  the  general 
Society.  


CHINA 

China  is  no  exception  among  oriental  countries  in  the 
great  need  for  medical  work  among  suffering  women  and 
children.  In  China  we  find  all  the  diseases  that  we  have  in 
America,  but  in  much  aggravated  form,  and  added  to  them  are 
many  diseases  not  ordinarily  found  in  this  country.  A great 
deal  of  suffering  is  also  brought  on  by  the  ignorance  of  the 


34 


native  doctors.  The  text-book  of  medicine  which  the  more  in- 
telligent of  these  use  was  printed  900  years  ago,  the  last  re- 
vision having  been  made  150  years  ago,  and  it  contains  many 
prescriptions  just  as  they  have  been  used  for  3,000  years.  The 
following  is  a Chinese  formula  for  opium  poison: 


2 couples  of  salted  lizards — 2 
male  and  2 female 
14  ounce  of  Korea  ginsing  root 
6 dried  grasshoppers — 3 male 
and  3 female 

1 ounce  sweet  potato  stalks 
1 ounce  walnuts 


2 ounces  black  dates 
14  ounce  elm  tree  bark 
14  ounce  devil  fish  claw 
14  ounce  of  hartshorn 
14  ounce  birds’  claws 
14  ounce  dried  ginger 
14  ounce  old  coffin  nails 


The  whole  is  to  be  mixed  with  two  quarts  of  water,  boiled 
down  to  half  the  quantity  and  drunk  as  quickly  as  possible  in 
one  dose — a perfect  cure  warranted. 

Often  thirty  different  drugs  and  things  are  given  in  one 
dose,  bones  of  birds,  snakes,  centipedes,  scorpions  and  other 
things  too  disgusting  to  mention.  Much  suffering  also  and 
death  is  caused  by  the  use  of  the  “needle.”  This  instrument 
of  torture  resembles  an  ordinary  steel  knitting  needle.  Some- 
times it  is  heated  just  before  being  plunged  into  the  body  and 
then  it  is  not  nearly  so  deadly,  though  if  it  penetrates  a vital 
part  or  a blood  vessel  certain  death  ensues.  Whether  hot  or 
cold,  of  course  it  is  used  without  any  anesthetic.  One  cannot 
be  in  China  for  even  a few  days  without  seeing  the  evil  effects 
of  this  dread  instrument.  The  proper  practise  of  surgery, 
with  all  its  important  asepsis  and  antisepsis,  remains  for  us 
to  give  the  Chinese. 

Dr.  Emilie  Bretthauer  of  Suifu,  West  China,  writes  with 
regard  to  Chinese  practise: 

“The  appalling  results  of  this  quackery  are  brought  to  our 
attention  daily.  A young  girl  of  eighteen  who  had  a slight 
ailment,  after  taking  the  medicine  prescribed  by  the  native 
doctor,  became  paralyzed  in  all  her  muscles  and  died. 

“Mrs.  Ko  had  chills  and  fever.  She  called  a native  doctor, 
who  told  her  to  buy  a certain  medicine  and  put  it  on  her  elbow 
and  it  would  draw  the  fever  out.  Her  whole  arm  became 
swollen  and  painful,  while  encircling  her  elbow  for  four  inches 
were  huge  blisters  with  a half  inch  deep  of  white  flesh  under- 
neath. Her  arm  was  so  painful  that  she  could  neither  eat  nor 


36 


sleep.  Her  chills  and  fever  remained  with  her.  A few  doses 
of  quinine  cured  her  illness,  but  it  was  several  weeks  before 
we  got  her  elbow  healed  up. 

“Little  six  months  old  San  Tsoe  caught  cold  and  so  had 
not  much  appetite.  The  native  doctor  was  called  and  out  to 
the  herb  shop  went  the  slave  girl  and  brought  back  a big  lot 
of  various  drugs.  These  were  steeped  and  given  the  unwilling 
baby  to  drink;  then  followed  convulsions  which  lasted  five 
hours,  when  the  child  died. 

“Of  obstetrics  the  native  physicians  know  nothing,  which 
is  natural,  as  they  are  not  permitted  to  see  these  cases.  In  this 
part  of  China  the  women  as  a rule  deliver  themselves.  If 
matters  are  delayed,  one  midwife  after  another  is  called.  When 
we  are  called  to  one  of  these  women  our  usual  experience  is 
that  four  or  five  midwives  have  already  had  their  turn.  So 
not  only  is  it  for  us  to  do  for  the  patient  what  Nature  was  un- 
able to  do,  but  we  must  also  counteract  what  these  midwives 
in  their  ignorance  have  done.  Need  I tell  you  that  many  of 
the  women  die  undelivered? 

“We  are  told  that  eighty-five  per  cent  of  the  children  die 
before  they  are  two  years  old.  I do  not  know  of  any  sadder 
sight  than  when  a father  brings  in  a five  days’  old  baby  with 
the  statement,  ‘There  is  nothing  the  matter  with  the  baby 
except  that  it  will  not  eat.’  One  glance  at  the  pitiful  little  face 
is  sufficient  to  tell  us  that  the  baby  has  lockjaw  and  we  must 
tell  the  father  ‘ There  is  no  hope.’  And  almost  every  day  they 
come,  sometimes  two  and  three  in  one  day.  At  least  half  of 
the  babies  born  die  from  lockjaw  within  ten  days  of  their 
birth.  In  East  China  the  name  for  lockjaw  is  ‘seventh  day 
fever’  because  so  many  babies  have  it  a week  after  birth.  And 
these  deaths  are  all  avoidable.” 

The  way  in  which  our  medical  work  is  organized  to  meet 
this  great  need  is  very  well  described  by  Dr.  Bretthauer  in 
the  book,  “A  Crusade  of  Compassion,”  pp.  99-100. 

South  China 

SWATOW 

So  much  for  the  general  conditions  of  our  work  in  China. 
Our  medical  work  in  this  most  needy  country  was  begun  in 


37 


South  China  in  1879,  when  Dr.  Caroline  H.  Daniells,  a gradu- 
ate from  the  Medical  Department  of  Wooster  University, 
Cleveland,  began  her  work  in  the  treaty  port  of  Swatow, 
on  our  mission  compound  at  Kakchieh,  across  the  bay  from 
the  city  proper.  Great  need  of  medical  work  indeed  did  she 
find  on  her  arrival,  for  although  there  was  a fine  Presbyterian 
hospital  across  the  bay  in  the  city  of  Swatow,  there  had  never 
been  a woman  doctor  and  the  women  and  girls  on  our  side 
of  the  bay  were  numerous  and  much  in  need  of  medical  care. 
Thousands  of  Chinese  villages  had  not  even  heard  of  the 
splendid  work  done  by  the  Presbyterian  hospital.  In  one 
case  when  a man  with  gangrene  of  the  foot  applied  to  the 
surgeon  of  that  hospital  for  medical  help  and  was  told  the 
foot  must  be  amputated,  he  replied  that  he  must  first  consult 
his  native  doctor.  The  native  doctor,  characteristic  of  his 
class,  exclaimed  in  wrath:  “That  foreign  devil  says  it  must 
be  amputated,  does  he?  Well,  I can  amputate,  too,”  where- 
upon he  had  the  suffering  patient  place  his  leg  across  a log 
and  with  a rusty  axe  cut  off  the  foot.  The  man  of  course  died. 

Dr.  Scott*  writes  that  she  herself  has  seen  a man  dragged 
back  and  forth  across  a room  a dozen  times  in  order  to  pull 
out  a tooth  with  a rusty  tourniquet,  and  when  she  could  per- 
suade the  patient  to  let  her  use  her  fine  forceps,  the  lookers-on 
were  astonished  that  he  could  sit  quietly  in  a chair  while  she 
quickly  extracted  the  tooth. 

When  our  first  medical  missionary  began  her  work  in 
the  Swatow  district,  we  had  no  hospital  or  dispensary  build- 
ing, and  she  had  to  travel  among  the  hundreds  of  villages, 
where  great  crowds  sought  her  aid.  At  times  she  would 
have  fifty  decayed  teeth  to  be  pulled  in  one  brief  stay  of  a 
few  hours.  Hundreds  of  blind  children — blind  perhaps  as 
the  result  of  worms — were  brought  by  parents  begging  pite- 
ously that  they  be  given  sight. 

Dr.  Daniells  was  obliged  to  begin  medical  practise  at 
once.  Soliciting  funds  from  her  Society,  she  had  a small  build- 
ing erected  which  could  accommodate  twenty  women,  mean- 
while studying  the  workings  of  Dr.  Gault’s  hospital  and  ma- 
turing plans  for  establishing  one  for  women. 

♦For  information  concerning  our  medical  work  in  South  China,  we  are  greatly  in- 
debted to  the  Autobiography  of  Dr.  Scott,  which  is  heartily  recommended  for  further 
study  of  this  subject. 


38 


Our  first  woman  doctor  in  China  worked  hard  and  well 
and  though  her  health  began  to  fail  when  she  had  been  but  a 
short  time  on  the  field,  she  continued  bravely,  preparing  pre- 
scriptions to  be  carried  by  others  when  she  could  not  go  her- 
self. When  her  lameness  prevented  her  from  doing  actual 
work,  she  spent  her  time  Romanizing  a handbook  of  medical 
terms  in  the  Swatow  dialect  or  writing  letters  to  interest 
people  at  home  in  the  work.  So  the  work  went  on,  making 
progress  each  year  in  spite  of  great  difficulty  until  finally  Dr. 
Daniells  was  compelled  to  return  to  America. 

As  Dr.  Daniells  was  never  able  to  return  to  the  field  our 
medical  work  in  Swatow  was  suspended  for  five  years,  until 
in  1889  the  Society  succeeded  in  finding  a woman  to  fill  the 
vacant  place — Dr.  Anna  K.  Scott,  who  for  the  following 
twenty-five  years  did  such  a masterful  piece  of  work  in  the 
South  China  district. 

Strange  indeed  were  the  workings  of  Providence  which 
led  to  her  taking  up  that  work.  She  had  already  been  en- 
gaged in  missionary  work  in  Assam,  together  with  her  hus- 
band, Edward  Payson  Scott,  spending  eight  years  during  her 
husband’s  lifetime  and  four  years  after  his  death.  At  the 
end  of  that  time  she  returned  to  America  to  educate  her 
three  small  children.  Here  this  indomitable  missionary 
mother,  in  order  the  better  to  care  for  her  children,  took  the 
full  medical  course  and  was  graduated  from  the  College  of 
Physicians  and  Surgeons  in  Cleveland,  receiving  also  a di- 
ploma from  the  Western  Reserve  Medical  College,  and  for 
twelve  years  she  practised  medicine  in  that  city.  When  her 
children  were  grown  and  educated  she  yielded  again  to  the 
strong  appeal  of  the  mission  field,  and  since  there  was  great 
need  for  a medical  worker  in  Swatow  and  the  way  was  hedged 
for  her  return  to  Assam,  she  turned  her  back  on  that  land  to 
which  she  was  bound  by  such  strong  ties  of  sentiment  and 
consented  to  go  to  South  China.  To  start  out  at  the  age  of 
fifty  years  to  a strange  land,  confronted  by  one  of  the  most 
difficult  of  languages,  required  courage  and  enterprise,  but 
Dr.  Scott  was  never  lacking  in  either. 

Arrived  at  Swatow  in  1889,  she  was  obliged  to  throw  her- 
self at  once  into  the  work  and  get  the  language  as  best  she 
could.  Writes  Dr.  Scott:  “I  found  many  of  the  Chinese  rather 


39 


Clinic  Room,  Swatow 


skeptical  about  the  woman  doctor’s  ability  to  treat  their 
many  big  diseases  and  I had  to  convince  them  that  I was  a full- 
fledged  M.D.  with  twelve  years’  practise  in  the  home  land. 
The  members  of  my  mission  stood  by  me  and  some  of  them 
went  with  me  to  the  various  cities  and  large  villages,  where  I 
established  dispensaries  which  I visited  fortnightly.  Some 
of  my  experiences  at  these  dispensaries  may  be  worthy  of 
recital. 

“At  one  village  I found  a woman  lying  on  the  floor  of  her 
little  hut.  She  had  been  given  up  to  die,  and  it  was  the 
custom  of  the  Chinese  to  put  all  dying  persons  on  the  floor. 
I found  she  was  not  dying,  though  she  had  had  nothing  to  eat 
or  drink  for  twenty-one  days  except  a teaspoonful  of  dried 
crab-apple  tea  three  or  four  times  daily.  She  was  literally 
starving  to  death.  She  was  covered  with  vermin  and  her 
clothes  were  filthy  in  the  extreme.  A Christian  Chinese 
woman  who  acted  as  my  assistant  aided  me  in  relieving  the 
trying  situation.  She  and  I undertook  to  place  her  on  the  bed. 
Her  relatives  strenuously  objected  to  our  doing  so.  They  said 
the  bed  could  never  be  used  by  any  one  after  a dead  body  had 
lain  on  it.  I assured  them  she  was  not  dead  and  that  I hoped 
to  cure  her  and  make  a well  woman  of  her.  They  laughed 


40 


to  scorn  my  idea  of  curing  a dead  woman  and  positively  re- 
fused to  allow  me  to  place  her  on  the  bed.  Finally  I agreed 
to  buy  the  bed,  vermin  covered  as  it  was,  and  pay  them  the 
price  of  a new  one.  To  this  they  agreed  and  my  helper  and 
I put  her  on  the  bed.  The  woman  was  gradually  revived  and 
when  strong  enough  was  made  clean  and  ready  for  clean 
clothes.”  The  relatives,  however,  would  consent  to  using  the 
clean  clothing  provided  for  her  burial  only  when  Dr.  Scott 
bought  it  of  them.  After  her  bath  and  the  putting  on  of 
fresh  clothes  the  patient  took  more  food  with  relish  and  smiled 
a feeble  ‘‘Thank  you.”  The  woman  recovered  and  the  story 
went  far  and  wide  that  “the  foreign  woman  doctor  had  raised  a 
dead  woman  to  life.”  This  report  brought  Dr.  Scott  many 
patients  from  all  the  villages  and  her  patients  sometimes 
numbered  two  hundred  a day,  to  attend  whom  she  was 
obliged  to  commence  work  at  four  in  the  morning  and  con- 
tinue until  ten  at  night,  barely  taking  time  for  food  when  so 
exhausted  she  could  work  no  longer.  She  had  no  assistant 
except  when  the  evangelistic  workers  could  get  a little  time 
from  their  evangelistic  work  and  come  to  her  help.  Her 
daughter,  now  Mrs.  Waters,  had  later  joined  her  and  was  a 
great  help  to  her  mother  in  the  evangelistic  work  which  she  so 
passionately  pursued  as  an  essential  part  of  her  medical  work. 

In  those  early  days  it  was  impossible  to  get  Chinese  parents 
to  consent  to  their  daughters  being  trained  as  hospital 
medical  helpers,  but  a few  years  later  Dr.  Scott  secured  the 
help  of  a remarkable  Bible  woman,  “Sister  Speed,”  a pupil 
of  our  mission  school  who  had  been  admirably  trained  in  both 
Christian  doctrine  and  living.  She  was  a noble  and  useful 
worker,  watching  over  the  patients  in  their  sickness  and  suf- 
fering, teaching  them  the  way  of  eternal  life  and  comfort- 
ing the  opium  smokers  who  were  striving  to  give  up  the  de- 
moralizing habit.  Dr.  Scott  took  a great  interest  in  these 
and  had  as  many  as  four  hundred  in  one  year  as  patients  in 
the  hospital — all  men.  She  felt  that  this  work  was  quite  justi- 
fied by  results,  as  an  encouraging  number  remained  cured 
and  labored  earnestly  to  induce  others  to  give  up  opium. 

Dr.  Scott  tells  of  one  who,  the  day  he  joined  the  church, 
came  leaping  to  her  over  the  seats  of  the  chapel,  exclaim- 
ing, “Rejoice  with  me!  They  have  received  me  into  the 


41 


church  at  last.  I have  applied  five  times  and  they  have  feared 
I might  again  use  opium  and  hence  have  not  accepted  me,  but 
today  I am  a baptized  believer,  and  you  are  the  one  who 
through  Christ’s  love  has  made  me  what  I am.”  This  man 
taught  the  doctrine  to  his  family  and  several  of  their  neigh- 
bors. Dr.  Scott  reports  that  the  Chinese  show  great  strength 
and  decision  of  character  and  seem  to  rise  above  force  of  habit 
more  easily  than  Western  nations. 

In  her  constant  traveling  about  among  her  dispensaries 
Dr.  Scott  had  been  considering  a site  for  a second  hospital 
and  finally  decided  upon  Kityang  as  the  strategic  center.  For 
several  years  she  spent  her  time  alternating  two  weeks  at  a 
time  between  the  Swatow  hospital  and  the  dispensary  at 
Kityang.  It  was  always  a great  sorrow  to  her  when  the  hot 
season  forbade  traveling  and  the  Kityang  dispensary  had  to 
be  closed  for  four  or  five  months.  Dr.  Alice  B.  Ross,  an  effi- 
cient helper  sent  out  to  assist  Dr.  Scott  in  her  first  term,  was 
unfortunately  compelled  by  ill  health  to  return  to  America, 
but  in  1894  she  was  joined  by  Dr.  Josephine  M.  Bixby,  who 
after  one  year’s  study  took  entire  charge  of  the  medical  work 
at  Kityang. 

Meanwhile  a much  needed  hospital  building  for  men  had 
been  erected  at  Swatow,  and  Dr.  Scott  was  kept  busy  there 
with  the  supervision  of  two  hospitals,  together  with  important 
surgical  operations  and  patients  coming  from  long  distances. 
Much  of  the  work  in  the  men’s  hospital  was  done  by  native  as- 
sistants who  had  completed  a full  course  under  Dr.  Scott’s 
instruction.  Some  of  the  most  valued  work  Dr.  Scott  did 
was  in  this  training  of  native  assistants.  At  first  she  had  only 
classes  for  men,  as  parents  would  not  allow  their  daughters 
to  enter,  but  during  her  last  years  she  succeeded  in  securing 
bright,  intelligent  young  women,  who  proved  quite  as  capable 
in  study  and  practise  as  the  men  students.  These  graduates 
of  hers  are  now  scattered  through  towns  and  villages  prac- 
tising medicine  and  extending  the  work  of  the  mission.  Their 
influence  is  being  felt  today  in  the  new  republic. 

Dr.  Scott  tells  the  following  of  one  of  her  pupils:  “One 
of  our  Christian  young  men,  A Lim,  was  chosen  as  the  doctor 
of  one  of  the  regiments.  As  he  was  one  of  my  medical 
students  and  had  taken  a four  years’  course  of  medical  study 


42 


Hospital  Buildings  at  Swatow,  South  China 


and  practise  in  my  hospital,  I felt  particularly  desirous  that 
he  should  fill  the  position  well.  He  gave  satisfaction  to  the 
military  officers  and  received  a large  salary  and  a horse  and 
was  called  a mandarin  doctor.  After  the  revolution  was  over 
and  quiet  restored  he  came  back  to  Swatow  to  be  my  helper. 
When  I told  him  that  I could  only  pay  him  a meagre  salary 
he  replied,  ‘All  that  I am  I owe  to  you,  and  I shall  not  allow 
a question  of  dollars  to  keep  me  from  helping  you  all  I can.’  ” 
In  no  long  time  the  work  at  Swatow  had  grown  to  such  pro- 
portions that  a new  men’s  hospital  as  well  as  a new  women’s 
hospital  was  demanded.  Dr.  Scott,  both  in  her  profession  in 
Cleveland  and  in  her  career  as  a missionary,  had  made  many 
devoted  friends  who  were  eager  to  have  a part  in  her  work, 
and  funds  were  secured,  largely  through  her  own  efforts,  by 
which  two  splendid  hospitals  were  erected — the  Edward  Pay- 
son  Scott  Memorial  Hospital  for  men  in  memory  of  Dr.  Scott’s 
husband,  and  the  Martha  Thresher  Memorial  Hospital  for 
women  in  memory  of  Mrs.  Martha  Thresher,  a noble  Chris- 
tian woman  of  Dayton,  Ohio.  The  old  hospital  building, 
erected  by  Dr.  Caroline  Daniells  and  three  times  enlarged  by 
Dr.  Scott  still  remains,  bearing  Dr.  Daniells’  name  and  does 
good  service  for  charity  patients. 


43 


Next  to  funds  the  great  problem  connected  with  the  build- 
ing of  a new  hospital  had  been  where  to  find  a site,  but  Dr. 
Ashmore’s  genius  was  equal  to  the  emergency  and  a steep 
and  stony  hillside  which  few  would  have  thought  it  possible  to 
utilize  was  patiently  transformed  into  a suitable  site.  The  Eu- 
ropean shipping  merchants,  ever  hostile  to  the  missionary, 
had  asked  scornfully,  “What  can  that  crazy  Yankee  make  of 
desolation  and  barrenness?”  Yet  it  stands  today  the  finest 
compound  in  China,  a joy  to  the  eye  and  commanding  a 
glorious  view  of  Swatow  Bay. 

The  buildings  were  opened  during  Dr.  Scott’s  furlough  by 
Dr.  R.  E.  Worley,  who  had  come  out  to  take  charge  of  the 
men’s  hospital  and  who  expressed  his  regret  that  “she  should 
be  absent  through  the  work  of  whose  hands  and  in  response 
to  whose  solicitations”  the  hospital  funds  had  been  raised. 
It  should  be  explained  here  that  Dr.  Scott’s  policy  had  been 
to  lead  the  Chinese  themselves  to  support  and  contribute  to 
the  work  of  the  hospital  and  in  this  she  had  been  very  suc- 
cessful. She  tells  how  grateful  women  patients,  not  them- 
selves Christians,  contributed  each  a considerable  sum  that 
some  other  women  who  could  not  pay  for  it  might  have  the 
benefit  of  hospital  treatment. 

Dr.  Worley’s  coming  had  been  a great  comfort  to  Dr. 
Scott,  and  his  tragic  death  by  drowning  a few  years  later  was 
a great  sorrow  to  her  as  it  was  to  all.  “The  Chinese,”  writes 
Dr.  Scott,  “never  weary  of  telling  how  kind  and  sympathetic 
he  was  and  the  hospital  helpers  all  speak  of  him  in  loudest 
terms  of  praise.” 

When  Dr.  Scott  returned  to  America  in  1904  she  was 
broken  in  health  and  had  little  hope  of  ever  returning  to 
China,  but  after  two  years  of  recuperation  in  Cleveland,  which 
characteristically  she  spent  in  the  practise  of  her  profession, 
she  was  so  fully  restored  in  health  that  she  felt  she  must 
return,  the  more  that  Dr.  Worley’s  death  had  left  both 
hospitals  without  doctors.  Her  friends  and  relatives  ex- 
pressed grave  fears  over  her  return  to  China  at  the  age  of 
sixty-nine  years,  but  her  confidence  was  amply  justified. 
On  her  return  she  took  charge  of  both  hospitals  once  more 
and  set  herself  assiduously  to  the  task  of  training  medical 
assistants,  both  young  men  and  young  women.  She  worked  on 


4i 


for  eight  years  and  though  her  health  was  failing,  succeeded 
in  holding  the  fort  until  her  granddaughter,  Dr.  Mildred 
Scott,  arrived  in  Swatow  to  take  her  place.  The  following 
record  of  Dr.  Anna  Scott  for  the  year  1912  will  show  that  her 
closing  years  gave  little  evidence  of  the  waning  energies  which 
we  expect  at  the  age  of  nearly  eighty  years: 

Martha  Thresher  Hospital 


Number  of  in-patients 290 

Number  of  out-patients  visited . 417 

Number  of  dispensary  patients 3,422 

Total  number  of  treatments 10,268 

Edward  Payson  Scott  Hospital 

Number  of  in-patients 624 

Number  of  out-patients  visited 1,218 

Number  of  dispensary  patients 4,252 

Total  number  of  treatments 12,757 

Graduate  helpers 5 

Students  helpers 9 

Fees  and  gifts  received $634.53 

Whole  expense  for  1912 $2,227.14 


Dr.  Scott  set  sail  for  America  once  more  in  May,  1914,  and 
has  since  resided  with  her  son  in  Chicago,  separated  from  the 
work,  yet  following  it  still  with  the  keenest  interest.  Dr.  Mil- 
dred Scott  carried  on  the  work  for  five  years  in  a way  that 
was  worthy  of  her  grandparentage,  retiring  in  1919  when 
she  returned  to  America  and  was  married  to  Rev.  Newton 
Carman.  She  will  return  with  him  to  Swatow. 

Dr.  Marguerite  Everham  is  now  (1921)  on  the  field  in 
charge  of  the  women’s  hospital,  with  Miss  Fannie  Northcott 
as  nurse,  and  assisted  by  one  native  doctor.  Eight  Chinese 
women  are  in  training  as  nurses.  The  year  1920  registered 
476  in-patients  and  a total  of  12,988  treatments.  Dr.  Ever- 
ham writes  concerning  a Christmas  celebration  at  the  hospital, 
closing  with  these  words:  “Think  that  there  is  no  Christmas 
in  China  except  for  the  few  who  are  Christian  and  the  few 
who  are  in  Christian  schools  and  hospitals  at  that  time.  On 
our  compound  and  in  the  nearby  village  there  were  perhaps  a 
thousand  people  who  celebrated  Christmas,  and  there  are  are 
hundreds  of  towns  near  here  where  there  are  perhaps  two  or  ten 


45 


people  who  know  about  Christmas,  but  there  are  thousands 
where  there  is  no  one  who  knows  the  blessed  story.” 

KITYANG 

As  has  been  said,  Kityang  was  opened  as  a dispensary  by 
Dr.  Anna  K.  Scott  in  her  first  days  at  Swatow  and  a small 
building  erected  as  a hospital  and  infirmary.  To  this  station 
came  Dr.  Josephine  M.  Bixby  after  one  year  of  study  in 
Swatow  (1899),  and  being  a most  capable  woman,  she  was  able 
at  that  time  to  take  entire  charge.  Dr.  Bixby  had  had  her 
interneship  in  the  Illinois  Eye  and  Ear  Infirmary  and  was 
especially  skilful  in  diseases  of  the  eye,  to  which  the  Chinese 
people  are  peculiarly  subject.  She  performed  the  most  diffi- 
cult operations  and  with  such  success  as  to  gain  rapidly  a 
wonderful  reputation  among  them.  The  consequence  was 
that  the  work  at  Kityang  grew  beyond  the  ability  of  one 
woman  to  keep  pace  with  it.  Dr.  Bixby  put  in  nine  years  of 
splendid  work  in  China,  but  under  the  circumstances  it  was 
a constant  strain.  Her  residence  at  the  start  consisted  of  one 
room,  which  served  as  study,  sleeping  room  and  reception 
room.  It  was  infested  with  rats  and  so  situated  as  to  be  in  the 
path  of  unendurable  Chinese  odors.  By  the  time  she  had  seen 
erected  a suitable  residence,  the  hospital  and  dispensary  build- 
ing erected  under  Dr.  Scott  had  been  hopelessly  outgrown  and 
a new  hospital  building  became  a necessity.  Dr.  Bixby  suc- 
ceeded in  raising  funds  for  this  hospital  and  lavishly  expended 
strength  and  energy  in  the  difficult  task  of  superintending  its 
construction,  but  it  was  too  much  for  her  and  a hurried 
journey  home  to  America  was  too  late  to  save  her  life.  Dr. 
Margaret  Grant,  who  had  recently  joined  our  mission,  was  a 
valuable  helper  in  our  work  both  in  Kityang  and  Kaying  and 
was  the  devoted  nurse  of  Dr.  Bixby  in  her  illness,  accompany- 
ing her  finally  on  her  journey  to  the  home  land.  Dr.  Bixby 
died  in  the  summer  of  1907,  and  the  completed  hospital  was 
named  the  Josephine  M.  Bixby  Memorial  in  her  memory. 

After  Dr.  Bixby’s  death  the  Kityang  hospital  was  un- 
fortunately without  a woman  doctor  until  Dr.  Edythe  Bacon 
was  sent  in  1910,  but  our  splendid  nurse.  Miss  Luciele 
Withers,  preceded  her  by  one  year  and  did  excellent  work 
there  as  she  has  done  since  in  other  South  China  stations. 


46 


Miss  Withers  was  loaned  for  some  years  to  the  Union  Hospital 
at  Canton  and  at  present  is  in  the  work  at  Sunwuhsien 
(Changning).  Dr.  Clara  Leach  is  in  charge  of  the  Kityang 
hospital  with  Miss  Gladys  Aston,  trained  nurse. 

East  China 

In  East  China  our  efforts  in  medical  work  have  been  for  the 
most  part  auxiliary  to  the  work  of  the  general  Society.  Under 
the  direction  of  the  doctors  of  that  Society  our  efficient  women 
nurses  are  performing  a most  useful  and  blessed  ministry. 

NINGPO 

In  Ningpo  there  is  a hospital  and  dispensary,  in  charge  of 
Dr.  J.  S.  Grant,  and  there  we  have  at  present  two  nurses.  Miss 
Harriet  Smith  and  Miss  Emma  Irving. 

In  1920  there  were  eight  native  nurses.  Dispensary  for  the 
women  was  held  twice  a week  with  5,344  out-patient  treat- 
ments. Illustrative  of  the  exceptional  opportunities  offered 
in  hospitals  for  evangelistic  work  is  the  following  incident  told 
by  Miss  Smith:  “One  day  I went  into  the  operating  room  and 
saw  an  emergency  patient  who  had  just  taken  chloroform  to 
have  a dislocated  bone  replaced,  and  beside  him  stood  two 
friends  who  had  brought  him  in.  The  head  surgical  nurse  was 
taking  this  opportunity  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  two  men 
while  the  patient  was  coming  out  from  under  the  influence  of 
the  anesthetic.  Another  day  he  was  sitting  with  a patient 
and  they  were  making  hospital  supplies.  And  while  they 
worked  the  nurse  told  this  young  boy  the  story  of  Jesus’  love. 
He  never  loses  an  opportunity  to  witness  for  Christ  and  praise 
God  for  healing  his  body  and  giving  him  a happy  home  and 
family.” 

HUCHOW 

At  Huchow  we  have  Miss  Esther  E.  Hokanson,  nurse, 
working  with  Dr.  C.  D.  Leach.  Here  fifteen  years  ago  the 
foreigners  were  driven  from  the  city.  In  1919,  a body  of  lead- 
ing officials  and  citizens  came  to  Dr.  Leach  and  announced 
that  they  had  obtained  possession  of  a most  desirable  piece 
of  land  for  a new  hospital  for  this  work.  Dr.  Leach  and  Miss 


47 


Washing  Sponges  and  Bandages  In  Hospital  at  Ningpo 


Hokanson  are  now  planning  the  new  building,  which  will 
accommodate  about  fifty  or  sixty  patients.  In  the  Chinese 
building  which  has  for  five  years  served  as  hospital  there  were 
twenty  Chinese  nurses  in  training  during  1920;  1,157  in- 
patients and  4,246  out-patients  were  reported  for  the  same 
year. 

SHAOHSING 

At  Shaohsing  with  Dr.  C.  H.  Barlow  and  Dr.  F.  W. 
Goddard  we  have  two  nurses.  Miss  M.  Jean  Gates  and  Miss 
Alma  Pittman.  In  1920  Miss  Gates  wrote  of  a beautiful 
baptismal  scene  when  the  only  two  nurses  in  the  Nurses’ 
Training  School  who  were  not  Christians  united  with  the 
church,  and  she  adds:  “Our  nurses  are  going  to  carry  on  a 
daily  vacation  Bible  school  for  six  weeks  this  summer,  for  the 
street  children  in  the  vicinity  of  our  hospital.  It  will  be  for 
two  hours  each  afternoon.  Our  evangelist  is  at  the  head  of  it 
and  I have  arranged  for  several  nurses  to  help  each  day.  They 


48 


will  be  taught  a little  hygiene  and  geography  as  well  as  Bible. 
I hope  to  be  there  for  the  closing.  It  ought  to  help  the  nurses 
as  well  as  the  children.” 


KINHWA 

At  Kinhwa,  where  the  Bickford  Memorial  Hospital  is  lo- 
cated with  Dr.  MacKenzie  in  charge,  a separate  ward  for 
women  and  children  has  recently  been  erected  which  increases 
both  our  work  and  our  opportunities.  This  building  has  its 
own  operating  department,  a maternity  ward,  private  rooms, 
nurses’  and  matrons’  rooms,  dining  room  and  large  general 
ward.  Our  competent  nurse.  Miss  Clarissa  Hewey,  had 
charge  while  Dr.  MacKenzie  was  home  on  furlough. 

In  1919  a training  school  for  nurses  was  opened  with  an  en- 
rolment of  five.  Miss  Hewey  writes  of  these  nurses  that  the 
spirit  in  which  they  work  is  fine  and  that  much  voluntary 
evangelistic  work  has  been  done. 

West  China 

SUIFU 

Up  the  Yangtse  River  in  Szchuan  Province  medical  work  is 
naturally  far  less  developed  than  in  the  more  accessible  fields 
near  the  coast.  For  years  there  have  been  only  two  women’s 
hospitals  in  that  great  province  which  numbers  sixty  million 
people,  one  belonging  to  the  American  Methodist  Board  in 
Chungking,  the  other  to  the  Canadian  Methodist  Board  in 
Chengtu.  Our  recent  steps  toward  such  a woman’s  hospital  in 
Suifu  are  therefore  most  timely.  Our  Baptist  men’s  hospital 
was  the  only  one  in  Suifu,  and  nothing  was  done  for  the 
women  and  children  there  except  for  the  few  whom  Dr. 
Tompkins  could  take  into  the  one  room  which  he  had  par- 
titioned off  for  that  purpose.  When  it  was  deemed  best  to 
close  our  Central  China  station  at  Hanyang,  it  released  Dr. 
Bretthauer  and  Miss  Crawford,  who  had  done  such  a splendid 
work  in  that  city,  and  they  are  now  engaged  in  woman’s  medi- 
cal work  in  Suifu. 

The  Suifu  territory  includes  a population  about  one-third 
that  of  New  York  City.  In  New  York  there  are  thirteen 


■19 


asylums  and  homes  for  chil- 
dren where  they  may  at  any 
time  have  the  attendance  of 
doctors  and  nurses.  Besides 
these  there  are  sixty-four  hos- 
pitals in  which  2,469  beds  are 
set  aside  for  children,  and 
rarely  are  any  of  them  vacant. 
There  are  more  children  in 
proportion  to  adults  in  Suifu 
than  in  New'  York,  but  sup- 
posing the  proportion  were 
the  same  the  number  of  beds 
available  for  children  in  the 
city  of  Suifu  alone  should  be 
823.  As  a matter  of  fact  we 
have  just  two  and  a packing 
box,  while  for  women  we  have 
ten  beds. 

And  doctors?  Boston  has 
one  doctor  for  every  350 
people  and  in  the  same  pro- 
portion Suifu  should  have 
5,714;  instead  it  has  two,  one 
man  and  one  woman — both  due  to  go  on  furlough  before 
the  new  woman  doctor  has  completed  the  language  study. 

At  present  the  only  building  for  medical  work  for  women 
and  children  is  a rented  native  building,  very  unsuitable  even 
with  the  best  alterations  possible.  It  has  two  rooms,  low- 
ceiled  and  dark,  where  we  can  accommodate  patients,  the  sec- 
ond so  dark  that  when  dressings  have  to  be  changed  the  lamp 
of  the  ward  must  be  brought  for  light.  There  is  no  room  that 
can  be  arranged  as  an  operating  room.  When  an  operation  is 
unavoidable  it  must  be  performed  in  the  front  ward  while 
the  patients  are  in  it. 

Mrs.  Liu,  Miss  Bretthauer’s  nurse  and  mainstay,  well 
illustrates  the  capacity  of  the  Chinese  woman.  A few  years 
ago  Dr.  Bretthauer  took  her,  an  illiterate  woman,  taught  her 
to  read  and  write,  to  make  simple  use  of  numbers  and  care 
for  the  sick.  Now  she  is  the  very  competent  head  nurse  of 


Mrs.  Liu 


50 


the  hospital  and  an  able  obstetrician  who  can  carry  on  the 
work  successfully  in  Dr.  Brett hauer’s  absence.* 

We  are  glad  to  report  that  the  land  just  outside  the  north 
gate  of  the  city,  on  a main  thoroughfare,  is  almost  completely 
acquired  for  the  new  woman’s  hospital.  This  is  to  be  the 
William  Howard  Doane  Memorial  Hospital.  The  maternity 
ward  and  dispensary  will  first  be  built. 


AFRICA 

Our  woman’s  medical  work  on  the  Congo  was  begun  in 
1896  when  Miss  L.  C.  Fleming,  who  had  taken  a medical 
course  on  furlough,  was  sent  to  Irebu.  When  the  mission 
force  was  removed  to  Ikoko  (Irebu  to  be  worked  in  future  as 
an  outstation).  Dr.  Fleming  was  sent  to  Bolengi  station,  but 
ill  health  compelled  her  return  to  America. 

In  1898  Dr.  Catharine  Mabie  was  sent  out,  and  has  com- 
pleted over  two  decades  of  Congo  service.  Very  full  years 
they  have  been  if  we  are  to  judge  from  the  first  one.  During 
that  year  there  occurred  an  epidemic  of  scarlet  fever  so  severe 
that  there  were  not  enough  well  people  to  care  for  the  sick. 
The  two  small  hospitals  at  Banza  Manteke,  where  Dr.  Mabie 
was  serving  her  interneship  under  Dr.  Leslie,  were  filled  to 
overfiowing.  The  work  was  performed,  too,  under  great  dif- 
ficulty. 

Our  Congo  mission  has  been  rich  in  doctors — five  excellent 
men  doctors  and  our  own  Dr.  Mabie — but  has  been  almost 
destitute  of  medical  and  surgical  equipment.  All  these  years 
Dr.  Mabie  has  had  only  a little  two-room  corrugated  iron 
shed  for  a hospital.  Improvements  have  been  noted  from 
time  to  time — the  addition  of  a couple  of  stoves,  the  replacing 
of  wooden  windows  with  glass  ones — but  nothing  bordering 
on  extravagance,  and  the  little  hospital  has  still  served,  its 
queer  walls  witnessing  feats  of  surgery  that  would  have  done 
credit  to  a far  more  pretentious  hospital. 

Now  our  medical  workers  in  Africa  take  new  courage  in  the 


*Read  “My  Mother,”  the  story  of  Mrs.  Liu,  by  her  son,  Herman  C.E.  Liu.  Price  3 cents. 

51 


0^2 


Dr.  Mabie  and  Natives 


proscect  of  four  new  modern  hospitals  at  Banza  Manteke, 
Sona  Bata,  Ntondo  and  Vanga.  The  Boards  recently  voted 
to  equip  the  Congo  mission  with  these  four  buildings  cost- 
ing four  thousand  dollars  each,  and  the  funds  are  already  in 
hand. 

We  are  seeking  six  trained  nurses  to  go  out  to  assist  in 
the  newly  planned  medical  work.  Miss  Anna  Hagquist,  a 
well-qualified  nurse,  reached  the  field  in  1920.  Dr.  Mabie 
is  to  have  a little  maternity  and  children’s  hospital  at  Kim- 
pese  for  training  purposes.  A new  day  is  dawning  for  our 
Congo  doctors. 

Dr.  Mabie  in  “Our  Work  on  the  Congo”  describes  the  maze 
of  ignorance,  superstition  and  fear  into  which  the  missionary 
comes.  Over  a people  so  devoid  of  all  knowledge  of  the  laws 


53 


of  health  and  medicine  and  so  full  of  superstition  and  fear, 
the  witch  doctor  very  easily  establishes  and  maintains  his 
powerful  influence.  He  is  a great  foe  to  the  missionaries, 
whose  success  with  the  people  logically  means  his  failure,  and 
he  does  everything  he  can  to  counteract  their  influence.  For- 
tunately for  the  terrorized  Africans  the  days  of  his  reign  are 
numbered. 


THE  PHILIPPINES 

While  we  have  no  woman’s  hospital  in  the  Islands  we  have 
a share  in  the  medical  work  through  our  nurses. 

ILOILO 

At  Iloilo  there  is  a Union  Baptist  and  Presbyterian  Hospital 
where  Dr.  Hall  and  Dr.  Thomas  alternate  and  cooperate  in 
the  hospital  work  and  where  our  nurses.  Miss  Nicolet,  Miss 
Dahlgren  and  Miss  Brewer,  are  now  stationed. 

During  Dr.  Thomas’  superintendency  in  the  past  few  years 
a most  interesting  dispensary  work  has  been  developed  with 
the  assistance  of  nurses  trained  in  the  hospital.  There  were 
twenty-six  nurses  in  training  in  1920  and  within  the  past  year 
all  who  were  not  Christians  have  found  Christ  and  been 
baptized. 

The  plan  is  to  build  a dispensary  in  a central  town  (there 
are  now  five),  establishing  there  a graduate  nurse  and  Bible 
woman  who  are  left  to  develop  a clinic  which  the  doctor  by 
means  of  his  Ford  car  visits  weekly.  The  nurse  and  Bible 
woman  visit  in  the  homes,  establish  friendly  relations,  give 
first  aid  and  gather  those  in  need  of  a doctor’s  care  for  the 
weekly  clinic.  Reh'gious  instruction  is  given  and  it  is  aston- 
ishing to  see  how  cordial  these  communities  have  become.  In 
nearly  every  case  men  of  the  well-to-do  class  have  built  the 
dispensary. 

A new  student  dispensary  is  now  opened  to  meet  the  needs 
of  the  large  student  body  in  Iloilo,  numbering  about  1,500  and 
likely  to  be  increased  to  3,000  with  the  coming  of  a normal 
school.  This  students’  dispensary  not  only  offers  relief,  but 
also  furnishes  a center  for  the  first  aid  classes,  which  have 


54 


' cMjy  i-i. 

Jii, 

Students’  Dispensary,  Iloilo 


become  very  popular.  In  Dr.  Thomas’  first  aid  class  at  the 
student  dormitory  one  hundred  boys  met  regularly  and  re- 
mained for  a class  on  the  Life  of  Christ  which  followed,  thirty 
of  these  fine  young  men  becoming  Christians  as  a result. 

The  girls  came  also  from  the  government  dormitory  and 
asked  for  a class  saying:  “It  is  more  important  for  us  as  we 
can  go  back  to  our  towns  and  help  mothers  and  children.” 
So  a class  of  eighty-three  came  and  several  who  were  in  Mrs. 
Thomas’  Bible  class  were  baptized  and  give  promise  of  good 
service  for  Christ.  The  girls  make  excellent  nurses  and  are 
eagerly  sought  by  the  government,  but  they  are  anxious  to 
serve  in  our  Christian  dispensaries  and  are  sowing  good  seed 
in  the  homes. 


CAPIZ 

The  Capiz  Hospital,  where  much  good  work  was  done  by 
Dr.  Lerrigo  and  Miss  Nicolet,  is  now  under  Dr.  F.  W.  Meyer 
and  our  nurse.  Miss  Cora  Sydney,  who  writes  in  the  1920 
report:  “We  started  with  seven  girls  that  had  been  gathered 
from  all  parts  of  the  island,  mostly  from  nearby  towns.  They 
had  already  passed  the  seventh  grade,  and  were  fairly  pro- 
ficient in  English.  Their  progress  has  been  rapid  since  they 


56 


Baptist  Nurses  Trained  at  Iloilo  Hospital 


started  on  their  work.  The  school  has  passed  government 
inspection  and  has  been  incorporated  and  standardized  under 
Filipino  law. 

“Our  needs  have  been  supplied  in  truly  marvelous  ways, 
and  many  times  when  it  seemed  that  we  could  not  get  along 
on  the  small  amount  of  money  which  was  coming  to 
the  hospital,  the  Lord  answered  our  prayer  and  sent 
gauze,  supplies  and  even  money  to  help  us  just  when  needed 
most. 

“Our  great  need  for  the  school  is  a proper  place  for  nurses  to 
sleep  and  live  in  when  oflF  duty.  Our  nurses’  quarters  were  the 
only  thing  criticised  by  the  government  inspector  and  we  were 
asked  to  change  them  as  soon  as  possible.” 


BACOLOD 

At  Bacolod  we  have  a small  two-room  dispensary  on 
the  compound  with  the  Girls’  Dormitory.  Here  Miss 
Sarah  Whelpton,  trained  nurse,  with  her  assistant, 
Glicerio,  ministers  daily  especially  to  the  poor  of  the  com- 
munity. 


57 


JAPAN 


We  have  no  medical  work  in  Japan,  for  the  obvious  reason 
that  the  Japanese  have  adopted  modern  medical  science  and 
have  no  need  of  our  help. 


Conclusion 

Too  much  cannot  be  said  of  the  extremity  of  the  need  in  all 
the  countries  where  we  are  doing  medical  work  and  of  the  im- 
portance of  strengthening  our  staff  of  physicians  and  nurses 
in  each  hospital.  Our  hospitals  also  should  be  better  equipped. 
Nothing  could  be  more  distressing  than  for  a skilful  and  well- 
trained  doctor  to  be  placed  in  the  midst  of  such  need  and  be 
hampered  at  every  turn  by  the  lack  of  suitable  equipment. 

Dr.  John  Lowe  has  said:  “Medical  mission  work  is  one  of 
the  most  powerful,  effective  and  directly  evangelistic  agencies 
which  the  church  possesses,”  and  if  we  aim  to  speedily  take 
possession  of  the  world  for  Christ  we  must^not  lose  sight  of 
this  truth. 


.58 


HOSPITALS  AND  DISPENSARIES 
Arranged  according  to  districts  supporting  them 

ATLANTIC  DISTRICT 

SuiFU,  SzcHUAN  Province,  via  Chungking,  West  China— 
Wm.  Doane  Memorial  Hospital  and  Dispensary 
Nellore,  South  India — Woman’s  Hospital  and  Dispensary 
Shaohsing,  Chekiang  Province,  China — The  Christian 
Hospital 

Capiz,  Panay,  Philippine  Islands — Hospital 
Udayagiri,  Nellore  District,  South  India — Etta  Water- 
bury  Memorial  Hospital 

NEW  ENGLAND  DISTRICT 

Mahbubnagar,  via  Janumpett,  Deccan,  South  India — 
Hospital  and  Dispensary 
Taunggyi,  Burma — Dispensary 

Kityang,  via  Swatow,  South  China — Bixby  Memorial 
Hospital  and  Dispensary 

Vanga,  Kuilu  River,  District  du  Kwango,  Congo  Belge, 
Southwestern  Africa — Dispensary 
Tura,  Assam — Hospital 

Kinhwa,  East  China — Pickford  Memorial  Hospital  and 
Dispensary 

Hopo,  VIA  Swatow,  South  China — Dispensary 

new  YORK  DISTRICT 

Moulmein,  Burma — Ellen  Mitchell  Memorial  Maternity 
Hospital 

Ramapatnam,  Nellore  District,  South  India — Dispensary 
Mongnai,  Burma — Hospital  and  Dispensary 
Kimpese,  Matadi,  Congo  Belge,  Southwestern  Africa — 
Woman’s  Hospital 
Ungkung,  South  China — Hospital 
Chaoyang,  South  China — Hospital 


59 


CENTRAL  DISTRICT 


Ningpo,  East  China — Hospital  and  Dispensary 
Hanumakonda,  Deccan,  South  India — Victoria  Memorial 
Hospital  and  two  Dispensaries 
SwATOW,  South  China — Hospital  and  Dispensary 
Gauhati,  Assam— Satri  Bari  School  for  Girls 
Bacolod,  Negros,  Philippine  Islands— Dispensary^and 
Girls’  Dormitory 

EAST  CENTRAL  DISTRICT 

Kityang,  via  Swatow,  South  China — Bixby  Memorial 
Hospital  and  Dispensary 

Swatow,  South  China — Hospital  and  Dispensary 
Yachow,  West  China — Hospital 

Nellore,  South  India — Woman’s  Hospital  and  Dispensary 
SuiFU,  SzcHUAN  Province,  via  Chungking,  West  China— 
Wm.  Doane  Memorial  Hospital  and  Dispensary 
Balasore,  Bengal-Orissa,  India — Sinclair  Orphanage 

WEST  CENTRAL  DISTRICT 

Ntondo,  via  Irebu,  Congo  Belge,  Africa — Dispensary 
Ningpo,  East  China — Hospital  and  Dispensary 
Namkham,  Burma — Dispensary 

northwestern  district 

Kityang,  via  Swatow,  South  China — Bixby  Memorial 
Hospital  and  Dispensary 

Huchow,  East  China — Union  Hospital  and  Dispensary 
SuiFU,  SzcHUAN  Province,  via  Chungking,  West  China — 
Hospital  for  Men 

Sattenapalle,  Guntur  District,  South  India — Dis- 
pensary 


60 


COLUMBIA  RIVER  DISTRICT 

SuNWUHSiEN  (Formerly  Changning),  via  Swatow,  South 
China — Dispensary 

Shaohsing,  Chekiang  Province,  East  China — The  Chris- 
tian Hospital 

Mahbubnagar,  via  Janumpett,  Deccan,  South  India — 

Woman’s  Hospital  and  Dispensary 

SOORIAPETT,  VIA  NAKRAKAL  P.  0.,  DECCAN,  SOUTH  INDIA — 

Hospital  and  Dispensary 

ROCKY  MOUNTAIN  DISTRICT 

SuiFU,  SzcHUAN  Province,  via  Chungking,  West  China — 

Wm.  Doane  Memorial  Hospital  and  Dispensary 

Nalgonda,  via  Nakrakal  P.  O.,  Deccan,  South  India — 
Woman’s  Hospital  and  Dispensary 

Iloilo,  Panay,  Philippine  Islands — Union  Hospital  and 
Training  School 

SOUTH  PACIFIC  DISTRICT 

Ongole,  Guntur  District,  South  India— Clough  Memorial 
Hospital 

SuiFU,  SzcHUAN  Province,  via  Chungking,  West  China — 

Hospital  for  Men 

Kimpese,  Matadi,  Congo  Belge,  Southwestern  Africa — 

Woman’s  Hospital 

Nowgong,  Assam — School 


Cl 


^ * 


- * i ‘ • ‘.t ' fill. 


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evt  ki  - 4 


INDEX 


A 

Annamah:  22 
Aston,  Gladys:  47 

B 

Bacon,  Edythe:  46 
Banza  Manteke:  51 
Barkley:  5 
Barkley,  A.M.:  29 
Barlow,  C.H.,  M.D.:  48 
Benjamin,  Lena  A.,  M.D.:  8,  12 
Bixby, Josephine  M.,  M.D.:42,46 
Blakely:  34 

Breed,  Lorena  M.,  M.D.:  20 
Bretthauer,  Emilie,M.D.:  36f,49f 
Brewer:  54 

C 

Capiz:  56f 
Changning:  47 
Coates,  Caroline,  M.D.:  8 
Crawford,  L.  Jennie:  49 
Cummings,  Emma  J.,  M.D.:  5 

D 

Dahlgren,  Anna:  54 
Daniells,  Caroline  H.,  M.D.:  29, 
38 

Degenring,  Anna,  M.D.:  8,  12 
E 

Everham,  Marguerite,  M.D.:  45 
F 

Farbar,  Marian,  M.D.:  22ff 
Faye,  Ida,  M.D.:  5 
Faye,  Mary:  8 
Fleming,  L.  C.:  51 

G 

Gates,  M.  Jean:  48 
Gerow,  Katherine:  8,  19 
Gifford,  Martha,  M.D.:  33 
Goddard,  F.  W.,  M.D.:  48 
Grant,  J.  S.,  M.D.:  47 
Grant,  Margaret,  M.D.:  46 


H 

Hagquist,  Anna:  53 
Hanumakonda:  18f,  26 
Heinrichs,  Mrs.  J.:  13 
Hewey,  Clarissa:  49 
Hokanson,  Esther  E:  47 
Hubert,  Mrs.  A.  J.:  21f 
Huchow:  47 

I 

Iloilo:  54 

Irving,  Emma:  47 
J 

Johnson,  Sigrid:  8,  15 
K 

Kanthama:  26 
Kaying:  46 
Kimpese:  53 
Kinhwa:  49 
Kityang:  42,  46f 

L 

Leach,  Clara,  M.D.:  47 
Leach,  C.  D.,  M.D.:  47 
Lerrigo,  P.  H.  J.,  M.D.:  56 
Levering,  Mrs.  F.  H.,  M.D.:  8 
Liu,  Mrs.:  50f 
Ludhiana:  25ff 

M 

Mabie,  Catharine  L.,  M.D.:  51 
MacKenzie,  C.  F.,  M.D.:  49 
Magilton,  Annie:  8,  20 
Mahbubnagar:  22fif 
Marvin,  Millie  M.:  34 
Maxville,  Selma:  33 
Meyer,  F.  W.,  M.D.:  56 
Minnie  Rungiah:  26 
Mitchell,  Ellen,  M.D.:  29ff 
Moulmein:  28£f 

N 

Nalgonda:  19ff 
Nandamah:  22,  26 


63 


Nellore:  5ff,  25 
Neufeld,  Aganatha:  20,  21 
Nicolet,  Rose  E.:  54,  56 
Ningpo:  47 
Ntondo:  53 

0 

Ongole:  8,  15ff 
P 

Pittman,  Alma:  48 
R 

Ramapatnam:  13ff 
Reilly,  L.  Jennie:  8 
Rorer,  Florence  M.:  13 
Ross,  Alice  B.,  M.D.:  42 

S 

Scott,  Anna  K.,  M.  D.:  38ff 
Scott,  Mildred,  M.D.:  45 
Scudder,  Ida,  M.D.:  27 
Shaohsing:  48 
Slade,  Beatrice:  5 
Smith,  Harriett:  47 
Sona  Bata:  53 
Sooriapett:  21f 


Stait,  Mrs.  F.  W.,  M.D.:  16,  17f 

Stever,  Edna:  34 

Suifu:  36,  49f 

Sunwuhsien:  47 

Swatow:  37ff 

Sydney,  Cora:  56 

T 

Thomas,  R.  C.,  M.D.:  54 
Timpany,  J.  S.,  M.D.:  19,  26 

U 

Udayagiri:  16ff 

Union  Medical  College  (Vellore): 
27 

Unruh,  Cornelius:  21 
V 

Vanga:  53 
Vellore:  27f 

W 

Wagner,  Lillian:  8,  19 
Weaver,  Florence,  M.D.:  8,  22 
Withers,  Luciele:  46 
Woman’s  Medical  College  (Ludhi- 
ana): 25f 

Worley,  R.  E.,  M.D.:  44 


esa-II-SM-.^pr.,  1921— TEN  CENTS 


64 


